India: Shubman Gill To Be New Test Captain, Says Cricket Board

Shubman Gill will be the new Test captain for the Indian team, cricket board BCCI announced on Saturday.

This comes after Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the white-ball series earlier this month.

Rohit, one of the greatest batsmen of the modern era, had retired from T20s after guiding India to the World Cup title in the shortest format last year.

Stay up to date with the latest news. Follow KT on WhatsApp Channels.

The 25-year-old Gill was identified in 2020 as a batting successor to Virat Kohli after impressing on his Test debut in Melbourne, where he opened and made 45 and an unbeaten 35 as India beat Australia by eight wickets.

Gifted with a wide variety of shots at the top of the order, it has been Gill's inspiring leadership of Gujarat Titans that clinched his elevation to the Test captaincy to succeed Rohit.

Gill played a captain's knock of 93 this week to secure a place in the playoffs for Gujarat, who were IPL champions in their 2022 debut season.

"I have talked about this a couple of times, when I'm batting, I want to play and think as a batsman, not as a captain. At the back end last season I learnt that," said Gill, who is in his second season leading Gujarat.

Gill, who has scored 636 runs at an average of 57.81 to lie second on the IPL batting charts, has led from the front and been dubbed "Prince" by pundits in the cricket-obsessed country.

Rohit and batting great Kohli's departures paved the way for Gill to lead a young India squad for five Tests in England beginning on June 20.

In a post on X, BCCI also unveiled who will be on the team:

• Shubman Gill (Captain)

• Rishabh Pant (Vice-Captain) (Wicketkeeper)

• Yashasvi Jaiswal

• KL Rahul

• Sai Sudharsan

• Abhimanyu Easwaran

• Karun Nair

• Nitish Kumar Reddy

• Ravindra Jadeja

• Dhruv Jurel (Wicketkeeper)

• Washington Sundar

• Shardul Thakur

• Jasprit Bumrah

• Mohd. Siraj

• Prasidh Krishna

• Akash Deep

• Arshdeep Singh

• Kuldeep Yadav

(With inputs from AFP)

MENAFN24052025000049011007ID1109591730