Team India has chosen an 18-man squad for the next five-match series against England, which will kick off the 2025-27 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. On Saturday, May 24, at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquarters in Mumbai, chief selector Ajit Agarkar made the official announcement of the team.
Rishabh Pant will serve as Shubman Gill’s deputy during the tour, which will start on June 20 with the series opener in Headingley, Leeds. Gill has been chosen the next Test captain.
Shubman Gill becomes India’s fourth youngest Test captain, following Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, and Ravi Shastri. Currently guiding the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the star batsman has led India in Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) before, including during the 2024 T20I tour of Zimbabwe.
Karun Nair and Shardul Thakur will make their squad debuts in the series – bater will play his first red-ball match after nearly three years as the in form Sai Sudharsan and Arshdeep Singh make their maiden callups, largely as anticipated.
Vidarbha batsman Karun Nair, who shone in the 24-25 domestic season, last played a Test in 2017 when India hosted Australia at home.
However, Sarfaraz Khan was left out after missing the entire Border-Gavaskar series.
Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shardul Thakur add two fast bowling allrounders to the squad. The former made an impression in his first Test in Australia and the latter has a superb record in England.
Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar along with Ravindra Jadeja are leading the spin bowling attack. With veteran spearhead Ravichandran Ashwin’s retirement, this is a big step for spin department.
Predictably, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj head the pace bowling unit, as they did in the Tests. Veteran pacer Mohammad Shami and right arm pacer Harshit Rana miss out as Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna and Arshdeep Singh are part of pace department’s support group.
Team India’s squad for five-match Test series against England
Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, 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, and Kuldeep Yadav
Team India squad likely to leave for England after the IPL 2025
The majority of the players nominated to the squad are involved in the commercial stage of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, which ends on June 3. The India ‘A’ team, which will play three games overall, including one against the senior team starting on June 13, has also added a few individuals from the main squad.
Over the last two tours, Team India has been largely competitive on English shores, but last series win on the country dates back to 2007 under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy. In their last tour in 2021-22, the Men in Blue had returned a 2-2 series result.
