The series will be starting on June 20.
Former England batter Nick Knight has weighed in on the increased responsibility of Shubman Gill. The 25-year-old batter has been appointed as the new Test skipper of India, after the sudden retirement of the former captain Rohit Sharma from the format. The five-match long series between England and India will also kick off the new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle for 2025-27.
The former English player has emphasised the new role of the 25-year-old and the responsibility that comes with it. He believes that Gill may find it difficult to concentrate on his performance while managing others in the squad.
“When you’re captain of a side, you have not quite so much time to prepare for yourself. He’s had time to develop and understand his own game. [Now] All of a sudden he’s got 10 or 11 other guys that he’s got to worry about. That’ll be a great challenge for him,” he said to Times of India.
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Notably, the batter holds a decent captaincy record so far. Gill has led his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Gujarat Titans to 14 wins out of 27 matches. He has also led India to a 4-1 T20I series victory over Zimbabwe in 2024. In domestic cricket, he has led Punjab in eight matches and won six out of them.
The opener has produced some outstanding performances in the red-ball format so far. He has notched up 1,893 runs in 32 matches, including five centuries in the format. However, more than half of his runs (1,177) have come in the home matches. The batter is yet to prove his overseas abilities.
Gill made his debut in Australia and has put up 352 runs in six matches there. He has also scored 74 and 45 runs in two overseas matches against South Africa and West Indies, respectively. The opener has made only three appearances so far on English soil. He has scored just 88 runs with a poor average of 14.66 in those matches. The fans will hope for the new skipper to better his stats on the upcoming tour of England.
However, India will kick off the first Test on June 20, in Leeds. This will be followed by four other fixtures in Birmingham, Lord’s, Manchester and The Oval. Following the recent Test retirements of the Indian stalwarts Rohit and Virat Kohli, and the exclusion of the veteran batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, Team India is set to begin a new era in the red-ball format.
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