India men's team head coach Gautam Gambhir is set to leave for England on June 16 evening to join the Shubman Gill-led Test side in Leeds on June 17. Gambhir had to fly back home after his mother suffered a heart attack.
Sports Tak has learnt that after the pacemaker was implanted, Gambhir's mother's conditions has improved. She is still the hospital.
On June 15, the intra-squad game in Beckenham was called off after Sarfaraz Khan and Shardul Thakur scored their respective centuries for India A against India. In Gambhir's absence, batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate and bowling coach Morne Morkel oversaw the practice match.
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India's first Test is at Headingley, Leeds where they lost by an innings on the previous tour. Gill will make his Test captaincy debut in Headingley. While Ben Stokes-England's fast-bowling stocks are depleted, they have enough experiences in English conditions to trouble India batters.
Gambhir will have to make the touch choice for the playing XI. While Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul are likely to be the opening pair, there is a question mark who among Gill and Karun Nair will bat at no.3 and no.4 respectively. Also, the team management, Gill and Gambhir will have to take a tough calll between Thakur and Nitish Reddy for the fast-bowling all-rounder spot. Thakur made his case with a century in the intra-squad game.
While Kuldeep Yadav is backed by many to do well on England soil, it is yet to be seen whether Washington Sundar is considered ahead of him.
India Test Squad -
Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav
England Test squad for first Test -
Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Zak Crawley, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jacob Bethell, Chris Woakes, Ollie Pope, Jamie Smith, Samuel James Cook, Brydon Carse, Shoaib Bashir, Josh Tongue, Jamie Overton