With the Indian team all set to tour England for a five-game Test series starting from June 20, the side will be without many of their ace players for the tour. Veterans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli both announced their retirement from the longest format before the England series, and the BCCI named Shubman Gill as the new Test captain for the upcoming tour.
The news of Virat Kohli’s retirement came as a shock to many fans, and the BCCI’s chief selector, Ajit Agarkar took centre stage and revealed that Kohli had met him in April and informed him about his decision to retire from Tests.
"When guys like that retire, there are always big holes to fill. Ashwin also retired. Those three have been stalwarts. Always difficult. One way of looking at it is an opportunity for someone else. Had conversations with both of them. Virat reached out early April, seem him give 200% every ball he plays even when he's not batting or on the field. Felt he'd given everything he had, if he can't keep up to the standards it was time for him. It's come from him. Have to respect that. They've earned that respect" said Agarkar at the press conference.
With no Rohit and Kohli in the squad, the board announced Gill as the new Test captain, with Rishabh Pant as the vice captain. Furthermore, the likes of Karun Nair, Abhimanyu Easwaran, KL Rahul, and many more stars were included in the squad as well.
The first Test of the series will be held at Headingley in Leeds from June 20, and both sides will be looking to get off to a good start to the new World Test Championship cycle.
India squad for England tour: Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (VC), 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