Is Shubman Gill leading the Indian Cricket Team for the Tests?
Is Shubman Gill leading the Indian Cricket Team for the Tests?
Shubman Gill could become India's new Test captain and successor to replace Rohit Sharma starting with India's Test tour of England, a five-Test series starting on June 20 at Headingley.
In the race to replace Rohit as Test captain, as he has already declared his retirement from Shubman Gill has been in front of this race, and he might start his captaincy with the England tour, which is going to be a 5-day Test series starting from June 20 at Headingley.
It seems clear that Gill will be promoted after it became obvious that Jasprit Bumrah, who was the vice-captain during India's Test tour of Australia and led the team in the two Tests Rohit couldn't play, will likely sit out a few Tests in the next World Test Championship (WTC) cycle to manage his workload.
The squad is expected to select later when the selection panel which is led by Ajit Agarkar going to meet this month later. As the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle for India begins, it appears that the selectors are looking for a captain who can lead for the long term, which makes 25-year-old Gill the top choice.
Whereas, Bumrah, who is the vice-captain of the Test team, captained two of the five Tests in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia during December 2024 and January 2025. Rohit was unavailable for the first Test because he was home for the birth of his child and also missed the last Test.
Recently, there have been concerns about Bumrah's workload as India's main fast bowler, especially since he just returned from an injury in his lower back after missing some matches.
In the last Test India played in Sydney, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli were part of the team, with Kohli previously being the long-term captain before Rohit took over.
Shubman Gill hasn’t captained in Test matches or ODIs but has led the team in five T20Is during a series in Zimbabwe in 2024 when many first-choice players were absent after India's T20 World Cup win.
There are talks of Gill being prepared for a captaincy role, and he has been doing well as a batter and captain for the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the IPL season. He took over as captain in 2024 after Hardik Pandya left for the Mumbai Indians. GT didn’t perform well in the previous season, but they are among the best teams this year.
Gill has been a consistent player for the India Test team since his debut in December 2020, where he scored well against Australia. Overall, he has played 32 Tests, scoring 1,893 runs with an average of 35.05, including five centuries and seven half-centuries.