India Test Squad Announcement For England Tour Live: Shubman Gill to be new India Test captain

India Men's selection committee chairman Ajit Agarkar has announced the 18-man squad for the five-match Test series against England next month. Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant has also been elevated to the position of Vice-captain.

Why is Gill the new India captain? 

Shubman Gill has been one of India's most consistent cricketers across formats over the last few years. With Kohli and Rohit announcing their retirement, there weren't many options left for the selectors. In his press conference, Agarkar explained that Jasprit Bumrah was not chosen as Test captain because he would not be available for all five matches.

Gill has played 32 Test matches for India, scoring 1,893 runs at an average of 35.05, with five Test centuries to his name.

"Over the last year or so, we’ve looked at Shubman at various times. You take a lot of feedback from the dressing room as well… He’s very young but we’ve seen the improvement. I know it’s T20 cricket for GT [Gujarat Titans in IPL] as well, but you take feedback from a lot of people. Agarkar noted his his press conference.

"We are hopeful that he’s the guy. It’s always going to be a high-pressure job, like it always is, but we are hopeful that we’ve picked the right guy. He’s a terrific player." the Indian chief selector added.

Who are the new faces?

A number of new players have been given a place in the 18 man squad including Gujarat Titans' opening batter Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Shardul Thakur and Akash Deep.

India's Test squad for England tour:

Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (vice-captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (2nd wicketkeeper), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, and Kuldeep Yadav.