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Following the sudden Test retirements of former skipper Rohit Sharma and star cricketer Virat Kohli, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was left with no choice but to appoint a new skipper for the format and give the younger crop of batters a shot at making it to India's playing XI in the longest format.
Ahead of the highly-important Test series against England which is also set to mark the beginning of the new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, BCCI appointed Shubman Gill as India's new Test skipper. This will be the 25-year-old's first time captaining the Men in Blue in the longest format as he previously only lead the side in the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe in 2024.
There are multiple new faces in India's squad for England Tests
Not only this, the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee gave maiden Test call-ups to both Sai Sudharsan and Arshdeep Singh and also brought back Karun Nair into the Test set-up after eight long years and included him in their 18-member squad for the series against England.
In a chat with former India cricketer Dinesh Karthik, newly-appointed captain Gill stated that both Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir haven't laid any big expectations on him ahead of the gruelling tour.
"The expectations… I've had this conversation numerous times with Gauti bhai and Ajit bhai. They just want me to be able to express myself as a leader. That's what they've told me 'there are no expectations'. They are not expecting me to do something I am not capable of. In terms of that, I don't think that there are any expectations or pressure from them but you definitely have some kind of expectations from yourself as a leader and a player. So those are the expectations that I have from myself but not from them," Gill told Karthik in an interview for Sky Sports.
"Apart from all the silverware and trophies aside, I would ideally like to build a culture where everyone is very secure and happy. I know it can be a very difficult environment, especially with all the competition or the number of matches that we play and different squads coming in, but if I am able to do that, that would be my goal," he added.
The first match of the upcoming Test series betrween England and India will commence from June 20 and will be played at Headingley in Leeds before the action moves to Birmingham with the second Test beginning from July 2. Following this, the third Test will be played at the iconic Lord's stadium in London from July 10. Manchester will be the place for the fourth Test and will commence from July 23 and the series finale will be contested at the Oval in London.
India squad for England Tests: Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC & WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav
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