India will embark on a new chapter in their red-ball journey as Shubman Gill leads the team in a five-match Test series against England, starting June 20. This series marks the first since the retirement of seasoned campaigners Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from Test cricket, leaving the young Gill to guide the team through one of its toughest overseas challenges.
Addressing the media ahead of India's tour of England 2025, Gill opened up about the emotions tied to his new responsibility. “I was overwhelmed when I was given the captaincy,” he admitted.
How's Shubman Without Rohit-Virat?
With the absence of Rohit and Kohli casting a long shadow, Gill was candid about the task ahead. “Pressure is always there in every tour. Definitely, two very experienced players who played for such a long time and won so many times, very difficult to fill their space. But it is not a different kind of pressure, all of us players are used to it,” he said.
India’s new skipper also revealed that final decisions regarding the playing XI and batting order are yet to be made and it will be done after the training session in London. “We will play an intra squad match and have a 10-day camp in London. Will decide batting combination when we go there,” he stated.
When asked about the use of Duke balls in English conditions, Gill noted that it was subjective. “It's an individual call. Players' first priority is to the team they are playing for. Some players would have,” he said.
As for his captaincy style, the 25-year-old admitted it’s still evolving. “I don't have any particular style,” he said. “As I get more experience, my personal style will come forward. I like having communication with players and talking to them. I want to make a bond with players. It is important. Understand their weakness. If players feel secure, they can give 100%,” he added.
England’s aggressive 'Bazball' approach left some impression during their 2024 tour of India, and Gill believes it's a known challenge India is ready to counter.
“They play a certain way. We saw that in India. It gives us a chance. If we are proactive with our execution,” Gill said, indicating that India has learned from past encounters.
Importance of Jasprit Bumrah In India Tour Of England 2025
India head coach Gautam Gambhir, also present at the press conference, pointed out the importance of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah in the series.
“Difficult to replace someone like Jasprit Bumrah,” Gambhir said. “Not decided which 3 Tests Jasprit Bumrah will play. Lot will depend on the results and where the series is headed.”
Despite the uncertainty over Bumrah's workload in India tour of England, Gambhir expressed confidence in India’s bowling depth. “We have picked enough bowlers. Lot of our pacers are in great space to win us Test matches from any position. When you have someone like Jasprit Bumrah, depending on how many matches he plays, will be a great sight for us.”
He added, “It's difficult to replace Jasprit Bumrah but I said during Champions Trophy, we have enough quality.”
On RCB Parade Stampede
The press conference also touched upon the tragic stampede that followed Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL title celebration on Wednesday. During the victory parade outside M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, 11 people lost their lives and around 47 were injured.
Gambhir criticised the parade. “I was never a believer in having a roadshow,” he said. “We need to be responsible citizens. If we weren’t ready to hold a roadshow, we shouldn’t have done that.”
India have announced their Test squad for the five-match series against England. The teams are as follows:
Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc, wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
