Chandigarh, May 25: The Indian team has been announced for the five-match Test series against England. The selection committee led by Ajit Agarkar has made Shubman Gill the new Test captain. 25-year-old Shubman Gill will be India’s 37th Test captain. At the same time, Rishabh Pant has been made the vice-captain in Tests. There was a lot of discussion about Gill. Gill’s name was being discussed since the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Now on Saturday, chief selector Agarkar announced it. The England tour will also mark the start of the Indian team’s new Test Championship cycle (2025-27).
Gill made his Test debut in Australia
Shubman Gill made his Test debut in 2020-21 on the Australia tour. He played a brilliant innings of 91 runs in the Test at the Gabba. By winning this match, Ajinkya Rahane’s Team India took an unassailable 2-1 lead over Australia. Since then, Gill has scored 1893 runs in 32 Tests at an average of 35.03. This includes five centuries and seven half-centuries. During this, he has hit 210 fours and 31 sixes. However, Gill’s record outside India has not been anything special. Especially in England, Gill has not been able to do anything special. There he has also played two World Test Championship finals. In three matches in England, he has scored 88 runs at an average of less than 15. In Australia, Gill has represented India in six Tests and scored 352 runs at an average of 35.20. This includes two half-centuries.
Gill’s five centuries came on Asian soil
Gill’s five centuries have come on Indian or Bangladeshi soil. This shows that Gill is yet to prove himself on foreign soil. Recently, on the Australia tour, Gill scored 93 runs in five innings of three Tests at an average of 18.60. There is not a single half-century among them. Gill started his Test career as an opener, but after Yashasvi’s arrival, he started being sent at number three. Now after Virat Kohli’s retirement, Gill may be asked to adopt the number four position.
Will Gill be able to manage the senior players?
Announcing the captaincy, Agarkar said, ‘Gill is very young and we have seen improvement in him. It is a very stressful responsibility, but we are optimistic.’ Last year, a 3-0 defeat in the home series against New Zealand and then a 3-1 defeat on the Australia tour forced Rohit Sharma to retire from Tests. In such a situation, Shubman will have to proceed very carefully. The biggest challenge before Gill will be to manage the senior players. The team has senior players like Bumrah, Shardul, Jadeja, Kuldeep, KL Rahul. Bringing them together so that there is no rift in the team will be the biggest responsibility. Earlier it happened in 2008-09 when Dhoni was given the command of an experienced Test team. Kohli did not face any problem in 2014 because almost everyone in that team was new.
Captaining GT in IPL
Gill is also the vice-captain of the Indian ODI team. He is also leading Gujarat Titans in IPL. Under his captaincy, Gujarat has played 25 matches and has won 14. Gujarat has lost 11 matches. Apart from this, Shubman has led the Indian team in five T20 matches on the Zimbabwe tour. Team India won four of these matches. With a coach like Gambhir, Gill can achieve the same success as he got in IPL under Ashish Nehra.
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