When was the last series India played without Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma & R Ashwin before ENG vs IND 2025 Tests?
Team India enters a new era of Test cricket under Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir ahead of the 2025-27 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, set to start with a challenging five-match series against England. The transition comes after Ravichandran Ashwin, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli all announced their retirements in quick succession.
With a combined total of 296 Test matches under their belt, they were a wealth of experience, which India will be devoid of in the future. All three of them made their final appearances during the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar series in Australia, which the Men in Blue lost 1-3.
Chief selector Ajit Agarkar praised the contribution of the three stalwarts of the red-ball side, and admitted that replacing them in the side would be a hard task.
"When guys like that retire, always big holes to fill. Ashwin also retired. Those three have been stalwarts. Always difficult. One way of looking at it is, opportunity for someone else," Agarkar said after announcing Team India's squad for the England tour.
Given that their careers spanned well over a decade, it has been a long time since the Test squad have been without the three ace players.
The last instance came during Team India's infamous tour of England in 2011. The initial squad did not include the trio. Virat Kohli was dropped right after his maiden Test tour of the West Indies. Although he was included in the squad as a replacement for Yuvraj Singh during the latter half of the series, he did not get a game in the 0-4 whitewash.
R Ashwin was also not selected as the team went with specialist spinners Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra for the overseas tour. The Tamil Nadu spinner was not considered as a replacement also when Harbhajan was injured, with left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha being named instead. Ashwin finally availed his first chance during the home series against West Indies in late 2011.
As far as Rohit Sharma is concerned, like R Ashwin, he had not made his Test debut before the 2011 tour of England. He was supposed to make his debut in 2008, but an injury during warm-up delayed it to 2013 when he was named in the squad for the home series against the West Indies.
Team India name a relatively young squad for the 2025 tour of England
There is naturally a bit of inexperience creeping into the side during transition. The squad for the upcoming England tour features new names like Sai Sudharsan and Arshdeep Singh. The likes of Karun Nair, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Dhruv Jurel, also do not have much international experience under their belts.
During such a time, there is a lot of responsibility on the leadership group, which primarily comprises newly-appointed captain Shubman Gill and his deputy Rishabh Pant, along with senior members like KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja.