No Sai Sudharsan, three openers and captain Gill in Pujara’s top four for England Tests

The BCCI men’s selection committee picked a new-look 18-man squad for the England Tests starting June 20 in Leeds. In Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s absence owing to their Test retirement, the selectors picked ace batter Shubman Gill as the new Test skipper, with gloveman Rishabh Pant as his deputy. Meanwhile, Test veteran Cheteshwar Pujara voiced his opinion on Team India’s possible top four for the five-match Test series, including three openers and captain Gill.

India’s top order shuffled a bit during their previous tour Down Under. Although KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal were the most successful pair of all, having stitched a match-winning partnership in the series opener in Perth, Rohit’s return to the side forced selectors to make a change for a game later in the series. Now that Rohit has retired, Rahul and Jaiswal might continue at the top in England, even in Pujara’s top four.

Speaking of the number third and fourth slots, Pujara said the question remains around Gill’s batting position, and unless it's cleared, it’s hard to pick the best number three for those seaming conditions. Although Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair’s selection suggested that selectors are keen on having a technically sound batter playing inside the top four, Pujara differs here, throwing a new name for the position he excelled in during his playing days.

"The openers who batted in Australia in the BGT series - KL Rahul and Yashasvi should continue. Now talking about no.3, at this stage, we don't know whether Shubman will bat there or drop down to No.4," Pujara said during a chat show on Sony Sports Network.

Pujara said if Gill bats at number four, one of Abhimanyu Eshwaran or Karun Nair could play at three. He, however, expressed his preference on where Gill should bat in the Test team.

"If Shubman bats at No.4, then someone like Abhimanyu Eshwaran or Karun Nair could be a good fit at that position, but I would still like to see Shubman batting at No.3," he added.

"Someone like Karun who has done very well in domestic cricket, I think the ideal position for Karun would be No.4. If Shubman bats at No.3, then Karun Nair comes at No.4. If Shubman bats at No.4, then at No.3 it would be a choice between Abhimanyu Eshwaran or Sai Sudharsan.”

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 and Kuldeep Yadav