Not Jasprit Bumrah, Shubman Gill Likely To Be India's Next Test Captain

Shubman Gill is likely to replace Rohit Sharma as India’s Test captain after the latter announced his retirement from red-ball cricket on May 7 (Wednesday), reported ESPNcricinfo. If it happens, Gill’s first assignment will be the challenging five-Test tour of England, starting on June 20.

The 25-year-old has never captained India in ODIs and Tests but did lead them in five T20Is during the tour of Zimbabwe after the 2024 T20 World Cup. Gill has also been leading Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) since the start of the last season.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Jasprit Bumrah won’t be given any leadership role as he is unlikely to feature in all five Tests in England. The Indian paceman will miss more Tests in the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) cycle to manage his workload.

When India toured Australia, Bumrah served as Rohit Sharma’s deputy and also captained India to their only win during the series. The 31-year-old featured in all five games and ended up getting a back injury due to extra workload. And that’s something the Indian team management wants to avoid in the upcoming WTC cycle.

The squad for the England tour will be picked later this month, and the selectors are eager to pick a long-term captain. Apart from Gill, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul are two members in the current Test set-up who have experience of captaining India in red-ball cricket.

Gill, who made his Test debut in December 2020, has featured in 32 red-ball encounters for India, scoring 1893 runs at an average of 35.05. The right-handed batter has five centuries and seven fifties to his name.