IND vs ENG 1st Test, Preview: Shubman Gill era begins as Team India launches quest for history in UK

The Shubman Gill era begins in Indian Cricket. The Prince, the successor or whatever the fans and cricket fanatics wish to call him, the time has come for him to carry forward the vast legacy left behind by countless Indian captains. As Gill embraces his new role in the Test side, alongside a newer batting position, as also confirmed by his deputy Rishabh Pant in the pre-match presser, he aims to launch a quest for creating history in the UK by winning his maiden series as the skipper, the last of which came under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy in 2007, when India won the three-match series 1-0.

Here is the match preview of the first Test between India and England starting Friday (Jun 20) at Headingley in Leeds.

Match Preview

Team India begins its new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle (2025-27) with an away tour of England, consisting of five Tests. With Headingley in Leeds staging the series opener, India has a crucial task at hand to deliver at the start and remain in line for a series win in the UK for the first time in 18 years.

Despite not having Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin (as all are now retired from Tests), alongside seamer Mohammed Shami due to match fitness concerns, Team India picked several newcomers and young legs for their away English tour. With a few uncapped players in the squad, besides those who featured in just a handful of matches thus far, the Gill-led Indian Team has plenty of options to choose from and explore during this two-month window.

However, what stands out is the pace attack, led by perhaps the best Indian seamer ever, Jasprit Bumrah. Considering the depth in that department, Gill was confident of winning matches on the back of his bowlers picking 20 wickets across all games, also echoing the same during the presser on match eve.

"You can't win a Test match without taking 20 wickets, no matter how many runs you have scored. So, that has been one of our key discussion points, you know, how we're gonna take 20 wickets. And there might be a case, you know, where we could only be going with some pure batters, and you could see a bowling all-rounder and three to four premier fast bowlers or proper bowlers,” Gill said ahead of the first Test against England.

England ready to rock and roll

Despite failing to qualify for the third consecutive WTC Final, which concluded last week (with South Africa beating Australia), England captain Ben Stokes insists on entertaining the fans with their brand of cricket, which the world now calls ‘Bazball.’

Although they have named their playing XI for the series opener against India, it remains to be seen if they deploy caution in their approach at any point during this entire five-match saga.

Meanwhile, unlike the Indian Team, which has a new look and shows promise across different fronts, the hosts have a settled batting and bowling attack.

Predicted/Playing XIs –

England – Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue and Shoaib Bashir

India (Predicted) – Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (wk), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj