"When New Leadership Role Comes...": Ben Stokes On India Test Skipper Shubman Gill
Ahead of the first Test against India, England skipper Ben Stokes said that the visitors have an "exciting time" in the longest format of the game as they have announced young Shubman Gill as the new captain of the national team. After batting wizards Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli bid adieu to Test cricket last month, India was left short on experience. With India bereft of its torchbearers, the management turned to youngsters to mark the beginning of a new era. After their decision, the captaincy baton was passed from Rohit to Gill.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Ben Stokes told the media, "I think Subhman Gill is a very fine player. He's been around a long time now, considering he's only young. He's played a lot of cricket, a lot of IPL cricket, actually a lot of cricket for India. I think it's an exciting time for Indian cricket to be under the new leadership. It's a lot of pressure to be the captain of any Indian team. But yeah, it's an exciting time. I think it is always for teams when a new leadership role comes into play. So yeah, obviously, he will be my opponent for the next six weeks so that I won't go into it too much, but all the best."
At 25, Gill has become one of the youngest players to hold the position in recent years. Though he lacks captaincy experience in the red-ball format, he has led India in a five-match T20I assignment in Zimbabwe in 2024. Gill has also been captaining the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Gill has also served as vice-captain in ODIs and T20Is. He was Rohit Sharma's deputy in India's victorious Champions Trophy campaign in the UAE in February 2025. In Test cricket, Gill has played 32 matches and scored 1,893 runs, including five centuries.
India tour of England will take place from June to August 2025, with matches to be played at Headingley (Leeds), Edgbaston (Birmingham), Lord's (London), Old Trafford (Manchester), and The Oval (London).
A new era beckons for India in the Test format as the modern-day giants gear up for their first assignment without the prized batting bigwigs Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Shubman Gill, India's youngest Test captain, has taken the baton from Rohit to guide the nation to success and challenge for the World Test Championship mace.
India squad for England Test series: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc, wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
England on Wednesday announced its playing XI for the opening Test of the five-match series against India, which will kick off on June 20 at Headingley.
For the opening Test, England has retained the majority of the XI they fielded against Zimbabwe during the one-off Test last month. Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett will open for England, followed by Ollie Pope at number three.
England Playing XI for the 1st Test: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (C), Jamie Smith (WK), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.
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