The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) took centre stage and announced the Indian team’s Test squad for their upcoming tour of England. It is worth noting that India will be kicking off the new WTC (World Test Championship) cycle 2025-27 by taking on England across five Test matches from June 20.
Ahead of the much-anticipated Test series, the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who were integral to India’s success in the longest format, announced their retirement from Test cricket, and the BCCI had the daunting task to name a new captain and find replacements for the two stalwarts of Indian cricket.
The squad announcement saw many star players like Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, and many more being included, with Gill being announced as the new Test captain, but it was the inclusion of veteran batter Karun Nair which caught the attention of the fans. Interestingly, Karun Nair took to X (formerly known as Twitter) back in 2022 and asked for another chance from cricket, and it seems that the chance has come for the batter with the upcoming England tour. "Dear cricket, give me one more chance," Nair had tweeted.
Notably, Nair has been called up to the Indian Test setup after a hiatus of seven years. He played his last Test match for India against Australia in Dharamsala from March 25 to 28, 2017. With the squad announcement, the BCCI’s chief selector Ajit Agarkar took centre stage and opined that Karun Nair’s experience could go a long way for the Indian team in the upcoming series. With Virat Kohli having announced his retirement from the longest format, Nair’s inclusion was much needed, according to Agarkar.
"Sometimes you just have to make good decisions. Sarfaraz, I know he got a 100 in the first Test and then didn't get runs. Sometimes it's decisions the team management takes. At the moment, Karun has scored heaps of runs domestically, has played a bit of Test cricket, and has played a bit of county cricket. With Virat not there, clearly we're lacking a bit of experience. We felt his experience could help,” Agarkar said at the press conference.
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