🏏India tour of England 2025: 1st Test: England vs India - Day 5🏏

🏏India tour of England 2025: 1st test: England vs India at Headingley, Leeds on 20/06/2025 at 3:30PM IST - Day 1🏏

India begin Gill era with an eye on England's weakened bowling

While the hosts have named their XI, the visitors are yet to decide on their No. 3 and No. 6

You might remember The Oval Test of 2011. A recall for RP Singh when he was on vacation in Miami, a double-hundred for Ian Bell, a six-for for Graeme Swann, a third century from Rahul Dravid in a backs-to-the-wall tour, a 42-ball pair for Suresh Raina, and the final coat of whitewash in England 4, India 0.

That was the last time India went into a Test match without any of - in order of Test-cap number - Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma in their XI. Fourteen years on, none of those players will be around when India take the field against England on Friday. Leeds will mark the start not just of a new Test series in England - and not just the start of a new World Test Championship cycle for both teams - but also a new era in Indian cricket.

It feels portentous to look ahead to a new series by looking back to 2011 and 4-0, but it's appropriate too. India hit the reset button within a year of that tour, and began to assemble the most versatile and most successful team in their Test-match history. They begin this 2025 tour with the unenviable task of trying to match or better that team's achievements with a largely new set of players.

The end of the old era was abrupt, with three retirements in the space of one tour, and there's no soft launch for the new one - no home series against a low-ranked opposition to ease players into new roles. The Shubman Gill era begins with a resounding splash at the deep end, away in England.

For all that, though, India won't be facing the England of 2011, 2014, 2018 or 2021-22. Those four series were significant points on the remarkable career graphs of Stuart Broad and James Anderson. Broad will take part in this series too, as a commentator, and Anderson as a name on the trophy.

England, then, have inexperience to worry about too. It will worry them that this inexperience is concentrated in the department that's most vital to winning Test matches in English conditions: fast bowling. Mark Wood and Olly Stone are out with long-term injuries, and while Gus Atkinson, and - for the first time in four years - Jofra Archer could feature in the second Test, they won't start the series.

There is vulnerability here, and India will know that. And India have Jasprit Bumrah.

Head to Head - Last 5 Matches

India won by an innings and 64 runs, 07-Mar-2024

India won by 5 wickets, 23-Feb-2024

India won by 434 runs, 15-Feb-2024

India won by 106 runs, 02-Feb-2024

England won by 28 runs, 25-Jan-2024

Batters to watch(Recent stats)

Joe Root, ENG

10 M • 979 Runs • 61.19 Avg • 69.67 SR

Harry Brook, ENG

10 M • 961 Runs • 56.53 Avg • 86.49 SR

Yashasvi Jaiswal, IND

10 M • 770 Runs • 40.53 Avg • 60.58 SR

Rishabh Pant, IND

10 M • 677 Runs • 37.61 Avg • 73.58 SR

Bowlers to watch(Recent stats)

Shoaib Bashir, ENG

10 M • 32 Wkts • 3.95 Econ • 61.62 SR

Brydon Carse, ENG

5 M • 27 Wkts • 3.43 Econ • 34.7 SR

Jasprit Bumrah, IND

9 M • 46 Wkts • 2.84 Econ • 31.47 SR

Ravindra Jadeja, IND

8 M • 29 Wkts • 3.4 Econ • 42.75 SR

In the spotlight: Chris Woakes and Shubman Gill

Thanks to England's injury issues, they start the series with two fast bowlers, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue, with eight Tests between them, and an offspinner, Shoaib Bashir, with 16. Without a genuine fifth bowler, England might also have to rely on Ben Stokes taking on a bigger bowling workload than he has been accustomed to in recent years. In this context, Chris Woakes becomes a key player. He has played 57 Tests, is nearing the 200-wickets milestone, and has an outstanding record in England: 137 wickets at an average of 21.59. And Woakes has come into his own as the senior man in England's attack over recent months, taking 31 wickets at 23.58 in eight post-Anderson Tests.

He's about to become India's 37th men's Test captain, lead them into a new era, and slip into the role he has always looked destined for: Kohli's successor as the defining face of Indian cricket. Shubman Gill is also about to go into his 33rd Test match with a batting average of 35.05. It's a slightly misleading figure, because he has played a lot of his Test cricket on spicy pitches - top-seven batters average 32.10 in matches involving Gill - but you still expect someone of Gill's lavish gifts to have better numbers. He sets high standards for himself too, and what better time to lay down a marker than his first series as captain?

Rain can play a huge role as India take on England in the first Test match in Leeds on Friday

Weather forecasts predicted rain and overcast conditions throughout the Test match

This will be the first Test match as captain for Indian cricket team batter Shubman Gill

Team India begin their highly-anticipated five-match Test series against England on Friday, June 20, at the Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds. Team India carry a fresh look, with 25-year-old batter Shubman Gill having been appointed as the new captain. However, Gill and co. will also have another challenge in store, in the form of the English weather. Overcast conditions are set to remain right throughout the five days of the Test, which will challenge the batters, while rain is also expected on a couple of days.

Pitch and conditions

Start out as a green seamer, flatten out thereafter. This is how Headingley's pitches have behaved over recent years: lowest collective average (27.48) in the first and second innings of all English grounds that have hosted at least five Tests since 2010, and best collective average (33.65) in the third and fourth innings.

Bowl first is almost certainly the way to go at Headingley: teams bowling first have won each of the last six Tests at the venue, and the last four fourth innings here have produced successful chases of 322, 359, 296 and 251.

Stats and trivia

• Gill (25 years and 285 days old on day one) is set to become India's fifth-youngest Test captain behind MAK Pataudi, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri, and push Kohli (26 years and 34 days) down to sixth place.
• Bumrah has dismissed Joe Root nine times in Test cricket. Bumrah hasn't dismissed any other batter as often, and only Pat Cummins (11 times) and Josh Hazlewood (10 times) have dismissed Root more often.
• Since 2018, the year of his first tour of England, KL Rahul has made more runs (597 at an average of 37.31) and more hundreds (two) than any other visiting opener in England.
• India have played seven previous Tests at Headingley, losing four, drawing one, and pulling off famous wins in 1986 and 2002.

Quotes

"Shubman Gill's a very, very fine player. He has been around a long time now, considering he's only young. He has played a lot of cricket, a lot of IPL cricket, actually a lot of cricket for India. I think it's an exciting time for Indian cricket, to be under new leadership. Obviously, a lot of pressure being captain of any Indian team, definitely; but yeah, it's an exciting time. It always is for teams when a new leadership role comes into it. Obviously, he is my opposition for the next six weeks, so I won't talk too much, but all the best."

Ben Stokes welcomes his opposite number to Test captaincy

"Me and Rishabh [Pant], we have played a lot of cricket together, and our mindset and our thinking are sort of aligned, and our vision is sort of aligned. We want to create an environment in the team where everyone feels secure, and I personally believe that everyone's best performances come when they're feeling the most secure, and they're feeling validated and secure, and that's the kind of environment that we want to create in the team."

Shubman Gill on the leadership philosophy he shares with his vice-captain

Where: Headingley, Leeds

What to expect: The surface wears a greenish tinge on the eve of the Test but is expected to ease out after offering some help early but with hot and sunny weather predicted for the duration of the Test, it should ease out and get progressively better for batting. Recent history at Headingley suggests teams will prefer to bowl first - both the two latest county matches played here in May followed that script.

Team News:

England

The hosts named their XI on the eve of the game, retaining Ollie Pope at No. 3 over Jacob Bethell. Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue will get first crack as a fast bowling pair.

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

India

All signs point to Karun Nair's return to the Indian Test XI after eight years, at No.3. The toss up for the sixth batter then comes down to Nitish Reddy and Sai Sudharsan and on evidence of the practice sessions, the all-rounder is set to start the series and have four fast bowlers following him in the XI with Shardul Thakur best suited for No. 8.

Probable XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Reddy, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

Did you know?

- The last time India played here, they were bundled out for 78 in their first innings, their third-lowest total in England. Their second-highest total in this country - 628 - also came at this venue.

- Bumrah needs five wickets to become the first Indian bowler to take 150 wickets in SENA countries. Only Wasim Akram (146) has more among Asian bowlers.

- Joe Root has 2846 runs at 58.08 and 10 hundreds against. No one has scored more runs vs India in Tests. But he has been dismissed 9 times in the format by Bumrah.