'He deserves captaincy, but the selectors...': Not Shubman Gill or Rishabh Pant, Ravichandran Ashwin wants this veteran to lead India in England

India's legendary cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin believes that speedster Jasprit Bumrah deserves Test captaincy in the upcoming five-Test match series against England, as the regular skipper Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the longest format of the game.

Ashwin, who announced his international retirement after the third Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Australia, explained that Bumrah will probably be the most senior player to travel to England for the upcoming assignment, and that makes him one of the captaincy options.

"The team that will tour England will be a completely new team, a transformed team where Bumrah will probably be the senior-most player. He is obviously one of the captaincy options; I think he deserves the captaincy, but the selectors will make a decision based on his physical capacity," Ashwin said on his YouTube show 'Ash Ki Baat'.

However, there are reports that young batter Shubman Gill is leading the race for captaincy despite Bumrah serving as Rohit's deputy in the last Test assignment. He served as the stand-in captain in Perth and led the side when Rohit opted out in the final Test in Sydney.

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The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) spinner also believes that Rohit and Virat had enough left in their tank to offer more to Indian cricket. He believes that when India lines up to face England in the five high-stakes Tests from June 20 in Headingley, the inexperienced touring party will miss Virat's energy and Rohit's composure.

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"Their retirements will definitely create a leadership vacuum. You can't buy experience, especially on tours like this. Virat's energy and Rohit's composure will be missed," he said.

"Tests has been the finest [format for India] in the last 10-12 years, but just for the sake of leadership, Rohit should've played till the England series, and if he'd performed, he could've carried on and given some more leadership.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has yet to announce the India squad for the upcoming Test series against England, and as per the BCCI sources close to Sports Tak, the squad is most likely to be announced on May 16 or 17.