ENG vs IND 2025, 1st Test: Shubman Gill will bat at this number, Rishabh Pant confirmed

Team India’s wicketkeeper batsman Rishabh Pant has been made the vice-captain of the Test team. He will now serve as the deputy of batsman Shubman Gill, who has been handed the captaincy after Rohit Sharma’s retirement. The first challenge for both the players will be the series against England. This series is going to start from June 20.

At the same time, in the pre-match conference in Leeds on June 18, Rishabh Pant clarified the situation regarding Shubman Gill’s new batting position. He confirmed that Gill will now bat at number 4 in the Test format, the position where Virat Kohli used to bat earlier. Apart from this, he also confirmed that he will bat at number 5.

However, there is a discussion about who will bat at number-3 when Gill comes down in the batting order. The strongest contenders for this position at the moment are Karun Nair, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sai Sudarshan. All three have been in great form recently.

The first Test match of the series will be played on June 20 at Headingley, Leeds. England have announced their playing XI for the upcoming match, with Ben Stokes leading the side and Chris Woakes returning as the main pacer.

Indian Squad for 1st Test against England

Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, B Sai Sudarshan, Karun Nair, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Siraj

England Playing XI for 1st Test against India

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