Shubman Gill has been named as the new captain of the Indian Test team. The 25-year-old youngster has Rishabh Pant as his deputy and his first assignment will be the gruelling 5-Test match series against England.
This comes after senior cricketers in the form of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli called it quits from the red-ball format, earlier this month. Shubman Gill will join the elite list of Indian Test captains – a list that involves the likes of Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly.
Shubman Gill has impressed one and all with his leadership skills at Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. GT are presently right at the top of the points table and have already advanced to the playoffs.
The 2022 champions are firm favourites to lift the title and would be backing themselves to win their 2nd title. Notably, Gujarat Titans have qualified to the finals twice – in IPL 2022 and IPL 2023.
What’s even more impressive is that captaincy duties haven’t taken a toll on Shubman Gill. Gill is presently the second-highest run-scorer in the IPL and has amassed 636 runs.
Sai Sudarshan and Arshdeep Singh have earned their maiden call-ups to the Indian Test team. Karun Nair stages a comeback into the squad after 8 years. Notably, the 33-year-old batter had last played a Test match versus Australia in 2017.
Nair holds the distinction of being the second Indian to score a triple-century after Virender Sehwag in Test cricket.
The Chief Selector of the Indian cricket team, Ajit Agarkar, highlighted that Shubman Gill was named as the skipper, keeping in mind, the long-term vision of the Indian cricket team.
“You don’t pick captain for one or two series. We have to think long term. In the last year or so, we have looked at Shubman in the previous times even when we played England last year. He has made a lot of impact in the dressing room,” said Ajit Agarkar.
Shubman Gill has previously captained India in the T20I format
The young batter was the captain of the Indian cricket team in Zimbabwe in 2024 for a 5-match T20I series. India had won the series, 4-1 against the hosts.
Shubman Gill is also the vice-captain of Indian in ODIs and had this role during India’s victorious ICC Champions Trophy 2025 campaign.
