Latest news with #GT
Hindustan Times
4 hours ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
'You don't miss someone who averages 33': Virat Kohli faces sharp jab over England batting credentials
The upcoming Test series in England will be a new experience for Indian cricket fans, with the first fixture set to begin on Friday in Leeds. The Indian cricket team will be without Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, as they both announced their Test retirements recently. Meanwhile, even R Ashwin won't be present after retiring from all formats during the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Shubman Gill has been appointed as the new Test captain, replacing Rohit. Rishabh Pant has taken over the vice-captaincy role. (IND vs ENG Live Score, 1st Test Day 1) The first Test will see a new-look Indian top-order, with Yashasvi Jaiswal expected to open with GT star Sai Sudharsan. Meanwhile, Shubman Gill has confirmed that he will bat at No. 4, a position which Kohli made his own. Comeback king Karun Nair is also in contention, and could fill in at No. 3, but will also have KL Rahul eyeing that slot. Many fans and experts have felt that Kohli's absence in particular could be a huge talking point in the series. The RCB star is also a former Test skipper, and it was under him, that India became a Test cricketing giant. He also had his aggressive personality in the field, which saw him get into multiple altercations, but it also motivated him and his teammates. Speaking to Fox Sports, England legend Michael Vaughan stated that Kohli's dressing room presence and on-field energy would be missed more than his batter, and remarked that his batting would not be missed due to his Test average. Kohli has scored 1096 runs in 17 Tests in England, at an average of 33.21. 'Kohli is a legend and a culture creator around this Indian team, and what he brought as a captain to the team is still there in terms of the energy and the drive and the aggression,' he said. 'But he only averaged 33 here in the UK. You don't massively miss someone that averages 33, but you miss someone that brings so much to the dressing room." But Vaughan also feels that the new generation of Indian cricketers selected in the team are capable enough of playing well in England. 'These players that are going to come in and play for India, they're seriously good players,' he said. 'Maybe this new generation has been waiting. Maybe they've been waiting for this moment. Don't be surprised that they play really well,' he added.
India.com
4 hours ago
- Sport
- India.com
Shubman Gill begins England series with a HEARTBREAK, India captain can't forget...
Image credit: X (Formerly Twitter) Image credit: X (Formerly Twitter) Shubman Gill is set to take over as new India Test captain. He will lead India in the five-match Test series against England beginning at Leeds on Friday. Image credit: X (Formerly Twitter) Shubman Gill had won the IPL 2021 title with Gujarat Titans under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya. Image credit: X (Formerly Twitter) Shubman Gill has failed to win IPL title as captain and carries that heartache. In IPL 2025, Gill's GT lost to Mumbai Indians in the Eliminator match. Image credit: X (Formerly Twitter) Shubman Gill said winning England series is bigger than IPL. "IPL comes every year and you get to have a crack at it every year. In my opinion, winning a Test Series in England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa (collectively SENA countries) is bigger," Gill said in the pre-match press conference. Image credit: X (Formerly Twitter) Shubman Gill will take Virat Kohli's No 4 position. Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket last month. Image credit: X (Formerly Twitter) Shubman Gill said he took inputs from Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli before England tour. "I met both of them in the IPL and they told me about their experiences, especially here in England, and some of the challenges that we might face here," Gill said. Image credit: X (Formerly Twitter) Rishabh Pant will be Shubman Gill's deputy in England series with both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli retiring from Test cricket.
NDTV
16 hours ago
- Sport
- NDTV
"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.
India Gazette
18 hours ago
- Sport
- India Gazette
"Exciting time for Indian cricket to be under new leadership": Ben Stokes after Shubman Gill's appointment as Test skipper
Leeds [UK], June 19 (ANI): 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 against India: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (C), Jamie Smith (WK), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir. (ANI)
Hindustan Times
20 hours ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Gill has improved massively in the past 12 months as captain: Nehra
Mumbai: Like several far-reaching decisions in Indian cricket successfully tried out first in the Indian Premier League (IPL) – such as appointing Rohit Sharma captain, the emergence of Jasprit Bumrah as a world beater and Suryakumar Yadav the T20 batting marauder – the national selectors would hope Shubman Gill's ascent to Test captaincy will also come good. Gill will become the fifth youngest Indian captain – counting Ravi Shastri's solitary Test – when he walks out for the toss at Leeds on Friday in the first of the five-Test India-England series to be broadcast on Sony Sports Network. Gill cut his teeth as captain for Gujarat Titans (GT) in IPL. 'From his first year as captain, there has been a massive difference in Shubman the captain in the past twelve months,' Ashish Nehra, GT head coach, told a select group of media of which HT was a part. 'He might have been a little shy and introverted before, but he has improved a lot. He communicates better with his bowlers. In between, he has also gained international experience.' Leading in Test cricket will present an entirely different set of challenges. But Nehra believes he has already shown traits of being calm under pressure. 'I personally rate him that's why we made him a captain,' said Nehra. 'He is a quick learner, a confident guy. He has his own mind which is great. I feel in Test and ODI cricket you get a little more time. In T20 cricket, you need to be even more calm. Shubman is very calm for his age, very mature for a 25–year-old.' For GT, Gill was elevated as captain after Hardik Pandya's surprise transfer to Mumbai Indians. The first year was a learning curve with Gill himself saying it took him time to compartmentalise batting and captaincy. Leading India would bring its own pressures. It would help if Gill has runs to show because that is the quickest way to earn the respect from teammates. 'If the top three score runs, that will make life easy for Shubman at No. 4 and the rest of the batting line up. Of course, you feel more confident as a batter when you score runs,' said Nehra. 'He will have his own expectations with himself. The way I see it, it's not just about the results, it's what sort of cricket they play. There have been recent series in England where India played a lot better than the scorecard suggested. So, it will be key to play good and exciting cricket.' With India's batting thin on experience, Bumrah's role as the leader of the pace pack and how Gill is able to maximise his impact while managing his workload will be of huge interest. 'On Bumrah's workload, the judge won't be Gill, it will be the fast bowler himself,' said Nehra. 'I have been hearing that Bumrah will play the 1st, 3rd and the 5th Test. But what if it rains in the first Test? You can't make these plans well in advance. Who knows, he may feel good to play back-to-back Tests. 'On some occasions, we have seen Bumrah picking up five wickets in 12-13 overs. That's how skilful he is. It's the bowler who will tell the physio and the captain on how his body is coping. You can't script this. This is not a movie.'
