Our Bureau
London
Virat Kohli unexpectedly announced his retirement from the Test format just a few days before the team for the England series was announced. Although he has moved away from the red-ball format, Kohli still seems to be very involved with the Indian side. Kohli, who has a home in England, invited players from the team to his house.
Just before the start of the first test match between India and England on 20th June, some players of the Indian team were invited to Virat Kohli’s residence. India’s new Test captain Shubman Gill, new vice-captain Rishabh Pant, pacer Mohammed Siraj and a few other players were seeing their former captain and teammate at his home in London.
The players met after they were part of the intra-squad match amongst them. The reports did not clarify what this sudden meeting was about but many speculated that they discussed how both Gill and his deputy Pant could lead the Indian team in their first assignment together and how they can lead an inexperienced Indian side against England.
It is being reported that the Indian Team Management has asked the right-arm pacer, Harshit Rana to stay back with the team. This comes ahead of the first test for which Rana has not been announced as part of the squad. Rana made his test debut in the team’s last test series against Australia in the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
India will be kickstarting their new World Test Championship cycle (2025-2027). The team will be under new leadership as Gill will lead the charge of the new look Indian side after three of their most prominent players of the last decade – Ravichandran Ashwin, Rohit Sharma and Virat, played their last test match in Australia.
India’s Test squad for England series: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
