New Delhi: India is set to face England in a five-match Test series, starting on Friday at Headingley in Leeds, marking the beginning of the 2025-27 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.
After Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s retirement from red-ball cricket, a fairly young Indian team, spearheaded by 25-year-old Shubman Gill, has a lot to prove.
“It will be one of the most challenging and revealing Test series,” veteran journalist and cricket expert Sharda Ugra told ThePrint.
According to her, their performance will reflect the “strength, depth and resilience of Indian cricket and the start of a completely new generation of Indian Test cricketers.”
Ugra is optimistic.
“A new captain, young batters of great ability and a bowler of the calibre of Jasprit Bumrah leading the attack and the quality of the opposition that England offer as compared to previous teams is what gives me optimism as to what lies ahead,” she said.
Independent cricket writer R. Kaushik, with more than three decades of experience, notes that the lack of Test match experience in the Indian specialist batting group can’t be denied.
“But these are players who have come through the ranks and been around for a long time,” he said.
Kaushik breaks down the pros and cons of the two Test sides.
“Karun Nair and Sai Sudharsan have played two successful seasons of county cricket each, Nair is one of only two Indians with a Test triple-ton, even though that came 8 and a half years ago and he hasn’t played Test cricket since March 2017,” he said.
Kaushik mentioned that more than any other country, England poses the most challenges to top-order batters, whose unfamiliarity with the Dukes ball used in that country is also a major factor.
“But while the odds do seem stacked against India’s batters, it must be borne in mind that England’s pace attack is also short on Test experience. Between them, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue have only played eight matches and even though they have greater knowledge of the conditions, that could be offset by the quality of the Indian batting,” the cricket expert added.
Kaushik also backs K.L. Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
He noted that Rahul and Pant both have two Test hundreds at Lord’s and are on their third full Test tours of England, while Yashasvi Jaiswal has shown himself to be a quick learner.
“After all, he did make a big century (171) on debut, in Roseau in July 2023, and as recently as in November in Perth in his first Test appearance in Australia, he followed up a duck in the first knock with 161 in the second innings. It’s also worth remembering that last year, he scored successive double-hundreds against England at home, in Visakhapatnam and Rajkot,” Kaushik added.
Also read: When India last toured England, Rohit Sharma was top scorer—‘no more an accidental Test opener’
India will miss Kohli, Rohit
Former England skipper Nasser Hussain has predicted that India will win just one match of the five-match Test series.
“England have a very good record at home, and India will miss the runs and experience of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. It’s a hard one to call, but I think home advantage will swing it to England, and I’m going for 3-1,” Hussain predicted in his Mail Sport column.
Ugra terms Hussain’s comment “valid” because “the majority of Indians are inexperienced around playing in English conditions”.
“But should the Indians win he is speaking about come early in the series, it will give the Indians impetus and confidence. And an Indian cricket team on a roll is an Indian cricket team that is hard to stop,” she added.
The cricket expert said that India’s performance in the Test series will give a sign of what the “young and inexperienced talent is made of and what they offer in the years ahead”.
Kaushik, too, agrees that the team will experience the void. But, according to him, transition is a phase every side goes through and in their absence, there is a chance for the likes of Sudharsan and Karun to step up and make a name for themselves.
The cricket writer said that the weight of history is against Gill and his boys, because India have won only three Test series in England, the last of them in 2007 under Rahul Dravid.
“Gill himself needs to string together consistent scores outside the subcontinent. Perhaps the cares of captaincy and a drop down the order to No. 4, a position occupied almost exclusively in the last three decades by first Sachin Tendulkar and then Kohli, is exactly the kind of fillip he needs to turn his overseas record around,” Kaushik said.
He thinks Jasprit Bumrah, who won’t figure in more than three Tests, will have a lot of pressure to perform, given how much rides on his shoulders, but pressure is something he thrives under.
“As India move past Rohit, Kohli and R Ashwin, this will be as good a time as any for Bumrah to reiterate his credentials as the greatest all-format bowler of his generation,” he added.
Young Indian team
While Gill takes over the captaincy from Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, who was also in the race to take the reins of the team, has been named the vice-captain.
Sai Sudharsan and Arshdeep Singh will be making their Test debut, while Karun Nair and Shardul Thakur return in the squad for the series.
Fast bowling all-rounder Harshit Rana, who was originally not part of the 18-member Test squad, has been called to join the team for the series.
The 23-year-old was part of the India A squad that, earlier this month, played two unofficial Tests against England Lions.
Rana played just one match where he scalped a wicket and scored 16 runs.
He made his Test debut earlier this year against Australia. In the two games he played, the fast bowler picked up four wickets.
For the England series, India’s batting line-up includes Yashasvi Jaiswal, K.L. Rahul, Dhruv Jurel, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Gill, Pant, Sudharsan and Nair.
There are four all-rounders in the squad—Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur and Nitish Kumar Reddy.
Jasprit Bumrah will head the fast-bowling attack with Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna and Arshdeep.
Kuldeep Yadav is the only specialist spinner in the 18-member squad.
Former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar had called the team selection “strange”.
“Strange team selection overall. But India go to England with nothing to lose. It’s a team in transition so we can only wish it the very best & yes, be patient when it comes to returns on investment,” he said on X, formerly called Twitter.
Strange team selection overall. But India go to England with nothing to lose. It’s a team in transition so we can only wish it the very best & yes, be patient when it comes to returns on investment. 👍#indianteam
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) May 24, 2025
Cricket commentator Aakash Chopra had also expressed his disappointment over Sarfaraz Khan’s Test snub.
“Sarfaraz Khan hasn’t done anything wrong thus far. In fact, he hasn’t done anything wrong till now. The one match he played, he scored 90-plus runs. He couldn’t score a hundred, but he scored runs. After that, you didn’t play him in the next match, and he is not part of the Test team,” he told The Times of India.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)