England tour: Gill-Gambhir regime off to a challenging assignment

The Shubman Gill-Gautam Gambhir era kicked in at India's Test arena on Thursday with the new captain admitting that it will be ‘very difficult’ to fill the void left by veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma after their twin-retirement in May. The captain and coach addressed their first joint press conference at the BCCI headquarters on the eve of the squad's departure for the shores for the demanding England tour.

The question of the obvious pressure of leading a new-look Test team came up early on but Gill looked ready to embrace it. ‘’Pressure is always there in every tour. Definitely, two very experienced players (Kohli and Gill) who played for such a long time and won so many times and it will be very difficult to fill their space. But it is not a different kind of pressure, all of us players are used to it.’’

There is a lot of speculation about the batting order in what would be India’s first Test series after they were routed 3-1 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Down Under. The captain, who has shuffled between the opener’s spot as well as No.3 in Tests, is one of the contenders to fill in the crucial number four position left vacant by Kohli. Karun Nair, the experienced batter who staked his claim at the first outing with a fluent double century for India A in the unofficial Test against the England Lions, is also in contention.

Asked about the batting order, Gill said they were in no hurry to arrive at a decision. Calling his appointment as a ‘big responsibility,’ he said: ‘’It was very overwhelming, at the same time it was a big responsibility and looking forward to this great challenge. We still have some time, we will be playing an intra-squad and have a 10-day camp in London. We will decide the batting order once we are there.’’

Gambhir struck a positive note ahead of the tour when he said: ‘’You are always on a good space, it’s an opportunity to do something special for the country. It really doesn’t matter if it is a clean slate or not. What’s important is that we have a talented squad who are willing to go out there, express themselves and do something special.’’ 

The head coach, under pressure to deliver, hinted that the 33-year-old Nair getting a run in light of his rich vein of form. ''It's good to have the experience of Karun, he played County cricket there and he is in really good form. His experience will come in handy. More importantly, we won't judge someone by one or two Test matches. If someone has scored heaps of runs, he will be given a decent run,'' Gambhir said.

Wood, Archer miss out

Meanwhile, paceman Jamie Overton has received a surprise call-up as England announced their 14-man squad for the first Test against India from 20 June at Leeds. The 31-year-old played the only Test of his career in June 2022 and now returns to replace the injured Gus Atkinson. Meanwhile, Jacob Bethell, Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse are all back in the squad after missing England’s one-off Test against Zimbabwe last month.

 Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, two of their speed merchants, are the notable names missing from the squad which will be led by Ben Stokes. Archer was expected to return to Test cricket for the first time in since February 2021 in this series but a thumb injury that he sustained while playing for Rajasthan Royals in the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League has put doubts on that.

Wood, meanwhile, could return for the final Test of the series if he has a seamless recovering from a surgery on  his left knee that was done in March.

England squad: Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Ben Stokes (capt), Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes.