It is, literally, the dawn of a new era in India’s Test cricket. The second match of the new 2025-27 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle is between a somewhat new-look India and hosts England at Leeds from June 20, and one man is in focus more than others.
That would be 25-year-old Shubman Gill, named India’s Test captain after the retirement of Rohit Sharma. With the experience of 32 Test matches, Gill is the sixth most capped player of the current Indian squad, after Ravindra Jadeja (80), KL Rahul (58), Jasprit Bumrah (45), Rishabh Pant (43) and Mohammed Siraj (36). A huge responsibility – and a leap of faith, as India’s chief selector Ajit Agarkar put it when announcing Gill as captain last month – has been entrusted to the man once compared to Virat Kohli.
There was a time, not long ago, that Gill’s place in the Test 11 was being questioned. He was shunted from the team when Rohit returned for the second Test of the tour to Australia late last year. His batting in SENA countries is a definite work in progress (average 25.70 from 21 innings, with two fifties) and there remain issues in seam-friendly conditions against incoming deliveries.
Gill has played three Tests in England – in 2021, 2022 and 2023 – for returns of 88 runs at 14.66 with a best of 28. All six times he’s been out to pace: twice nicking to second slip, once edging to the wicketkeeper, once out lbw, once bowled and once caught at gully.
Gill returns to England in 2025 a more confident batsman, having reached the heights of No 1 in the ICC ODI rankings – he is India’s leading run-getter in the format since 2020 – and as captain of India’s Test squad, but he has a lot of hard yards to put in to enhance his credibility. The team management and selectors valued his leadership over Bumrah based, as Agarkar said, on feedback from the dressing room and Gill’s peers. These five Tests will be a stern test of Gill’s steeliness as a thinker and tenacity as a batsman, and with the vacated spots of Rohit and Virat Kohli there are tough calls to be taken.
Gill has yet to reach full potential as a Test player. Those 32 Tests have yielded 1893 runs at an average of 35.05 with five centuries. Of his 59 innings, 29 have come when Gill has opened. In these chances, his batting average is 32.37 and he has two centuries when opening. The other 30 innings have come since mid-2023 when he informed the management, he’d like a shot at one-down: the average has jumped to 37.74 with three hundreds at home.
If, as all signs indicate, India plan to pair up Yashasvi Jaiswal with Rahul at the top of the innings, then there are two places for Gill to bat: at No 3 or No 4. There are murmurs of the uncapped B Sai Sudarshan getting a debut at one-down, where Gill has batted for nearly two seasons. Not a bad idea, given the need for another left-hander in the top order, and it also allows Gill a bit more breathing room given the added pressure of captaining India.
This writer has long believed that Gill is best suited to bat at No 4 once Kohli retires, and that opportunity has presented itself. Gill bats well with the lower order and coming in a spot lower than usual could allow him more time to settle against a softer Dukes cricket ball. His tendency to get out playing across the front pad – Tim Southee and Scott Boland exploited this brilliantly in English conditions across two WTC finals – puts Gill in a trickier spot the earlier he bats, so the Indian think-tank might have this in mind.
The bigger picture is this new two-year WTC cycle, and the promise of Gill being around for the next decade as a central figure in India’s batting order. He’s opened, he’s batted one-down, and the results have been ordinary. A new dawn, a new cycle, a new challenge; time for a new batting spot?
The No 4 spot since Sachin Tendulkar made it his own in Tests has been the most pivotal. Saved for royalty, in fact. The special ones. Kohli eased into the spot immediately after Tendulkar retired in 2013, scoring Tendulkaresque knocks of 119 and 96 in the same Johannesburg Test. Kohli finished with 7654 runs at No 4, averaged 50 there, and 26 of his 30 centuries came from that spot.
Gill is no Kohli, but his career right now is not too far behind where Kohli’s was around the same stage. After 29 Test matches, Kohli averaged 39.46 with six centuries. Then he went to Australia in late 2014 and turned around his career with 692 runs in eight innings. If Gill can absorb half of the drive and determination that Kohli displayed over a decade, he – and this Indian team – will be on the right track. The answer lies with Gill, who has the potential but must throw away the inconsistency that has dogged him overseas. A bit more focus and application, and not falling back into those moments of indecision after getting set, and he could have a series to remember.
The key for Indian cricket fans is to not expect too much at this moment. England are a tough team at home, whereas India are stepping into a new era with a rejigged batting and bowling order (Ravichandran Ashwin too has retired). Gill’s captaincy experience is largely restricted to the IPL with Gujarat Titans across two seasons, and the scrutiny will be overwhelming.
One gets the feeling that starting off a new era with Gill in a new batting position could be a decisive factor. Do India’s men who matter have the belief that Gill can fill Kohli’s role?
