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With the first Test of the five-match series between England and India beckoning, newly-appointed captain Shubman Gill attended a pre-match press-conference that was held on Thursday. It was there that the 25-year-old talked about a variety of things including the type of environment that he wants to create around the team as its captain
'We want to create an environment in the team which is very secure. The blueprint that we have received from our seniors in the past 5-10 years is that we can win anywhere. We will try to follow that blueprint with confidence. If the environment in the team is good and the players feel secure and confident and they know their roles in the team, we want to create that environment and this will make our test series and ICC World Test Championship cycle very successful," Gill said at the press-conference.
The upcoming series against England will be Gill's first assignment as India's Test captain and with the Men in Blue's record on English soil being abysmal, the tour could end up being quite pressurizing for the new captain. Notably, India last recorded a Test series triumph in England back in 2007.
Gill will be batting on the number four spot against England
In the press-conference, Gill also opened up about his decision of replacing Virat Kohli as India's new No.4 on the batting order. The 25-year-old stated that he came to the big decision after having a discussion with head coach Gautam Gambhir.
“Captaining the country is the biggest honour anyone can get. After Virat bhai retired, me and GG bhai had a discussion about me batting at that number," Gill stated.
He further revealed that he had met with both Virat and Rohit Sharma during IPL 2025 and had asked them about the problems that the Indian team might face in the tour against England. Gill also recalled the last five-match Test series between India and England that was held on home soil for the Men in Blue and where they emerged victorious by 4-1.
"Yes. I met both men during the IPL. They told me about their experiences in England and some of the challenges that we might face here. But having said that, the Test series that we played against England in India was one of the best I was part of. Even in that one, not a lot of the main players were available and how we went about the series is how this one is also going to be. The series scorecard was 4-1, but it didn't justify how tough the matches were against England. And if we replicate that, it will be key for us," he said.
The series against England will see India kick-off a brand-new era in Test cricket. This comes following the back-to-back retirements of Ravichandran Ashwin, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from the format which opened the door for several youngsters to make it to the squad. It will be interesting to see how India's young guns perform in the gruelling overseas tour.
India squad for England Tests: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana.
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