Shubman Gill during practice
Credit: Reuters photo
Leeds: Transitions are an inevitable part of team sports. While the exits of superstars do leave a major void, they also present an opportunity for the next generation to step up and take their respective games and the team to a higher level.
India, hit by the sudden retirements of two of their batting stalwarts, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, as well as off-spinner R Ashwin earlier this year, are exactly in that situation as they take on England in a gruelling five-match Test series starting Friday here in Headingley.
“There are two ways of looking at this tour. One is we are without our three most experienced players or we got this phenomenal opportunity to do something special for the country," head coach Gautam Gambhir remarked during a conversation with bcci.tv around a week ago.
England, like Australia and South Africa, has hardly been a great place for the Indians to travel, who have won just three series here in 19 attempts, with the last win coming way back in 2007. The swing, the seam, the constantly changing conditions where it could be sunny in the morning session and cold and windy in the third, the hostile crowd… all can test the best.
Questions are aplenty ahead of the series opener, which is also the start of a fresh two-year World Test Championship cycle for both teams. Can the young but reasonably experienced batting line-up deliver? Can Shubman Gill, thrust into the hot seat of Test captaincy at a young age of 25, survive the baptism by fire? Can the bowlers blunt England’s ultra-aggressive style of batting? Can India, coming on the back of two successive series losses where they’ve won just 2 games in 8 Tests, arrest the slide? The answers will start trickling from Friday, but there is a quiet air of confidence wafting through the Indian ranks.
The batting line-up has a good mix-up of youth and experience. Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal may be just 23 years old, but the Mumbaikar has already played 19 Tests, and in that journey, he’s already averaging 52.88. His performances in Australia, where he scored 391 runs in 5 Tests, showed he really has the hunger and desire to excel in every part of the world.
The onus to do the heavy lifting will be on the experienced trio of KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant. The triumvirate are the only specialised batters with the experience of playing Tests in England, and they really have no room for inconsistency.
The series is also a big test of Gill’s character. Considered as the heir to Kohli’s throne since his teenage years, the prince has now been ordained as the king, and just how he delivers, both as a batter and captain, will dictate Indian cricket’s immediate future. His performance in England the last time India came here wasn’t below average, but it was the same with Kohli, who flopped miserably in 2014 before owning the show in 2018, where he was the captain too.
What will give Gill a sense of confidence is the bowling resources he has at his disposal, which, on paper, appear superior to England’s inexperienced attack. Jasprit Bumrah is by far the best bowler in the world across formats, Mohammed Siraj has blossomed into a potent strike partner, while Prasidh Krishna, expected to start the series, can be quite a handful in these conditions. In the spin department, he has the immensely experienced Ravindra Jadeja as well as the dangerous Kuldeep Yadav.
England, in the build-up, have openly declared they will continue to brandish ‘Bazball’ come what may. It came uncooked in India during the 2024 series, where they lost 1-4 but are confident of employing it at the comfort of their homes. Two sides with a point to prove square off in what promises to be the beginning of an engaging series.
Squads: India: Shubman Gill (capt), Rishabh Pant (vc, wk), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur.
England (playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (capt), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.