Shubman Gill’s 5-hour Meeting With Gautam Gambhir Seals Captaincy- Reports

Shubman Gill, as many reports claimed, was the front-runner to replace the retired Rohit Sharma as the new red-ball leader of the national side. The Nagpur-born, under whom the Blue Brigade reached the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) in the previous cycle, announced his retirement on May 07.

Just a couple of days after Rohit’s retirement, Virat Kohli also hung up his boots from the longest format, which put more pressure on the selectors to look for a young leader in the side who could handle the responsibilities of the team for a long time.

Shubman Gill meets Gautam Gambhir and the BCCI chief selector

Since Rohit’s retirement, many have reported Shubman Gill’s name to replace the Mumbai batter as they aim to lead the Blue Brigade from the five-match Test series, starting on June 20, to begin the fourth cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27.

In the list of potential leaders, they had the premier pacer, Jasprit Bumrah, and the veteran wicket-keeper batter, KL Rahul, along with Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant. But Bumrah’s option was eliminated once the selectors paid attention to the pacer’s bowling fitness.

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A report claimed that Shubman Gill met the Indian head coach, Shubman Gill, at his residence in Delhi and spoke for nearly four to five hours. Reports expressed that the chief selector, Ajit Agarkar, was also present at the Wankhede Stadium during the last IPL 2025 game for the Gujarat Titans against the Mumbai Indians.

“He has shown impressive leadership qualities in the way he has led GT, who are currently topping the table this season.” The report quoted by the BCCI source stated that the board is looking forward to building a new team around the leader for the upcoming WTC cycle and the England trip.

Ravichandran Ashwin drops a bomb on potential Test leader

Along with Virat Kohli and Rohit, Ravichandran Ashwin took his red-ball retirement during the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 in the previous year against Australia.

Even though the official Indian squad for the England series has yet to be announced officially, the selection process is centered around the potential leader.

“First of all, everyone is saying that Shubman Gill is the captain. Everyone is going in that direction. But there is a loud option in Jasprit Bumrah, and why do we forget about Ravindra Jadeja?” Ashwin claimed during a recent interaction with the former Tamil Nadu opener, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, on his YouTube channel.

“If you are willing to go for a new person as captain, I would say why not make him an understudy of an experienced guy for two years before handing him the job on a full-time basis?” He informed.

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After Kohli and Rohit’s retirement, Jadeja is the most experienced player on the side with over 3000 runs in 80 Tests, besides collecting 323 wickets.

Shubman Gill to travel to England early to play for the India A squad

The selectors, on May 16, picked up the India-A squad to tour England for three unofficial Test matches. Shubman Gill will be part of the side in the third Test, which will allow him to get an extra preparation against the new-ball bowlers.

Gill’s record in the five-day format isn’t inspiring, with 1893 runs in 59 innings at an average of 35.05 and a strike rate of around 60, including seven half-centuries and five fifties at the best score of 128 runs. Now, with batting, he will face an added responsibility of leadership.