Follow Us25-year-old Shubman Gill has been selected as the next skipper of the Indian senior men’s side, and will be leading the side when they travel to England for the five-Test series starting June 20.
Since India played their first Test match in 1932, 36 individuals have had the privilege of captaining the side in the oldest format of the game. Gill will now be the 37th player to captain India in Test cricket, and will succeed Rohit Sharma, who captained India after Virat Kohli stepped down from the prestigious post.
Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant were the other big names in contention to succeed Rohit; however, while injury and fitness concerns have weighed against Bumrah’s candidacy, the selectors seem to have put their trust in Gill’s leadership and have made Pant the vice-captain of the side.
Pant, who is captaining Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season, has had a lacklustre outing with the bat in the T20 league and has looked lackadaisical as a skipper too.
Kohli's retirement also emptied the number four slot in the batting order, and Gill will be expected to slot in there.
So far, Gill has played most of his Test career either as an opener or at number three. He has a batting average of 35.05 after playing 32 games in the format. But he averages only 25 while playing in South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia and the West Indies, and that still is a big concern in his Test career. His last half-century in the above-mentioned countries came way back in 2021 when he scored 91 in the famous Gabba Test.
With many seniors missing on the side due to retirements in a cluster, Gill would have his task cut out as India are entering a transition phase in Test cricket with a very new look side.
Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav