Shubman Gill has been named as India’s new Test captain, chief selector Ajit Agarkar announced on Saturday in Mumbai. Rishabh Pant has been named as the vice-captain of the team.
Agarkar revealed Jasprit Bumrah was not considered for captaincy as he is unlikely to play all five matches in England due to workload management. The former Indian pacer said Bumrah would be available for three or four Test matches.
Meanwhile, Sai Sudharsan and Arshdeep Singh have received maiden Test call-ups for the England series. Karun Nair and Abhimanyu Easwaran have been added to the Test squad after an impressive run in the domestic circuit. But Shreyas Iyer will miss the flight to England despite performing consistently in the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai.
On naming Gill as the new captain, Agarkar said, “We obviously discussed every option that’s there. Over the last year or so, we have looked at Shubman at various times, even when we played England last year, to take a lot of feedback, even in the dressing room as well,” said Agarkar. “Obviously, he is very young but you have seen the improvement – and I know it’s T20 cricket – for GT [Gujarat Titans] as well. We are hopeful we have picked the right guy. He’s a terrific player, and best wishes to him.”
Meanwhile, Mohammed Shami also missed out on the squad and Agarkar revealed the fast bowler was not fit to be picked for the team.
“He’s been trying to get fit for a series but I think he’s had a setback over the last week or so. He’s got some MRI done. I’d like to mention I don’t think he was going to be able to play five Tests at the moment. I don’t think his workload is where it needs to be, so it’s just the medical guys who’ve told us that he’s been ruled out of the series, unfortunately.
“We were hoping him to be available for some part of the series at least but if he’s not fit at the moment, it’s very difficult to keep waiting. We’d rather plan with the guys that are fit and available at the moment.”
The opening Test match between India and England will be played at Leeds, Headingley, from June 20 onwards.
Full squad: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc, wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav
