'Bumrah was the vice-captain in Australia, but...': Ajit Agarkar on BCCI's decision to pick Shubman Gill over Jasprit to lead India in Tests

Agarkar acknowledged that Bumrah was the vice-captain in Australia, but since he was unable to feature in all five Tests, they wanted him fit. The board had a chat with the legendary speedster, and he is okay with the decision to appoint Gill as the new skipper. 

"Bumrah was the vice-captain in Australia, but since he was not available for all five [Tests then], we wanted him fit...," Agarkar said. "We'd rather have him bowling as well as he does than put extra burden on him. We had a chat with him and he's okay with it. It was to do with his workload maangement and about having him fit as a player."

The five-Test match series between India and England is scheduled to start from June 20, and this will be the team's first assignment after the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. Bumrah, who was Rohit's deputy in Australia, also captained India in the first Test, which was the only Test India won. 

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India vs England five-Test match schedule

India squad for England series

Shubman Gill(C), Rishabh Pant(vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Parishdh Krishna, Akashdeep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav