“You don’t pick captains for one or two tours” - Ajit Agarkar explains picking Rohit Sharma’s successor for ENG vs IND 2025 Tests
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held a press conference on Saturday, May 24, to announce India’s squad for the upcoming five-match Test series tour of England. With that, chief selector Ajit Agarkar finally announced Shubman Gill as the team’s new Test captain.
Notably, Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the longest format of the game earlier this month, handing the selection committee a major task of selecting a new Test captain. After Rohit’s T20I retirement, Suryakumar Yadav was named India’s full-time captain in the shortest format, and the team will now see three different skippers across formats.
While Rohit will continue leading the side in ODIs, Gill and Suryakumar Yadav will oversee the Test and T20I teams, respectively. Providing the reason behind Gill’s appointment as Rohit Sharma’s successor in Tests during the press conference, Agarkar said (via Firstpost):
“We discussed every option that’s there, over the last year or so, we’ve looked at Shubman at various times. Taken a lot of feedback from the dressing room. Very young, but there’s been improvement. We’re hopeful he’s the guy. He’s a terrific player, our best wishes to him. You don’t pick captains for one tour or two tours. We’ve seen some progress over the last year or two with him. No doubt it’s going to be as tough as it gets.”
Ajit Agarkar announces India’s Test squad for England tour
With Shubman Gill in charge of a new-look Test team going forward, wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant was named the former’s deputy. The squad also saw Sai Sudharsan getting a maiden call-up, and Karun Nair returning to the Test setup for the first time since 2019.
With Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announcing their Test retirements, some long-lost names and some new names have emerged in the squad as Sudharsan, Nair and Abhimanyu Easwaran found themselves a place in the setup.
Team India's squad for the five-match Test tour of England: Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC and WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sai Sudharsan, 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