Shubman Gill named India Test skipper for England tour, Rishabh Pant vice-captain
India chief selector Ajit Agarkar named Gill to take over from the retired Rohit Sharma for the five-Test series in England
Mumbai: Indian cricket selectors picked Shubman Gill as the new India Test captain, naming him to lead the side for the five-Test series in England starting on June 20. The 25-year-old top-order batter was named in an 18-member squad announced on Saturday by the chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar.
Gill became the frontrunner once the selectors decided to move past Rohit Sharma, following his series of low scores at home against New Zealand and in Australia. Rohit then announced his retirement.
“Obviously you discuss every option that’s there. Over the last year or so, we have looked at Shubman at various times. Even when we played England last year. You take a lot of feedback from the dressing room as well,” Agarkar told a media conference. “Obviously he’s very young. We’ve seen the improvement. I know it’s T20 cricket for Gujarat Titans, but we take feedback from a lot of people (about captaincy in IPL), and we’re hopeful that he’s the guy who can...it’s obviously going to be, like it always is, a high-pressure job. But we’re hopeful we’ve picked the right guy. He’s a terrific player and our best wishes for him.”
Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah would have been the ideal replacement after leading India well in Australia during Rohit’s absence, but his continuing struggle with fitness discouraged the selectors from naming him skipper. “I think he’s more important to us as a player. We want him fit. There’s always that extra burden when you’re leading, managing 15-16 other people, there’s a lot that it takes out of you,” Agarkar said.
“We’d rather have him bowling as well as he does, than putting that extra burden on him. He’s aware of it and he’d rather look after himself and be bowling fit.”
Rishabh Pant was named wicket-keeper and vice-captain. “Pant is one of our better batters in the last couple of years. He will help Gill out with all the experience. At the moment, these two are the guys we feel will take the team forward,” said Agarkar.
Uncapped Sai Sudarshan was named in the squad, an expected call like naming Gill as captain. Karun Nair makes a comeback after seven years – he played the last of his six Tests in 2017 – having scored heavily for Ranji Trophy champions Vidarbha this season. Nair’s inclusion meant there was no place for Sarfaraz Khan.
Left-arm white-ball pacer Arshdeep Singh has also been included in the squad with Mohammed Shami going out of reckoning due to his fitness issues.
“He’s (Shami) been trying to get fit for a series but I think he’s had a setback over the last week or so. He’s got some MRI done. I’d like to mention I don’t think he was going to be able to play five Tests at the moment. I don’t think his workload is where it needs to be, so it’s just the medical guys who’ve told us that he’s been ruled out of the series, unfortunately,” Agarkar said.
“We were hoping him to be available for some part of the series at least but if he’s not fit at the moment, it’s very difficult to keep waiting. We’d rather plan with the guys that are fit and available at the moment.” All-rounder Shardul Thakur has been picked as one of the six pace bowling options for the series.
Schedule: First Test: Leeds (June 20-24); Second Test: Edgbaston (July 2-6); Third Test: Lord’s July 10-14; Fourth Test: Old Trafford: July 23-27; Fifth Test: The Oval: July 31-Aug 4.
The squad:
Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper, vice-captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
