 "India Playing XI vs England: Who will be included in Shubman Gill-led Indian team for Headingley Test?")
A new cycle of the ICC World Test Championship begins for both England and India on Friday as they face each other on the opening day of a five-match Test series at Headingley, Leeds. And besides the start of a new WTC cycle, the first Test will also mark the beginning of a new era, for it will be the first Test since Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirement from Test cricket in the span of a week last month.
Additionally, the two teams are set to compete for a brand new trophy, with the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy now replacing the Pataudi Trophy and the Anthony de Mello Trophy – which had previously been awarded to the winner of an India-England Test series held in England and India respectively.
But what will the team combination be like for the two teams involved at the start of the marquee series? Ben Stokes and company had already unveiled theirs two days ago with Ollie Pope continuing to bat at No 3, at all-rounder Jacob Bethell’s expense, and Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse returning to the pace department.
What India’s playing XI is expected to look like for the first Test against England
India doesn’t quite follow the trend of announcing their playing XI a day or two before the game, a trend that has been primarily followed by England and Australia, and while a couple of positions have been confirmed in the build-up to the Headingley Test, the full playing XI will not be confirmed until the two captains walk out for toss on Friday.
There will be extensive changes from the last time India played Test cricket – in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia where the iconic trio of Kohli, Rohit and R Ashwin had made their final appearances in whites (international cricket in spin icon Ashwin’s case).
Senior batter KL Rahul had formed a successful pairing with opener Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top of the order in Australia and the team management is likely to continue with that combination going forward.
Gill, who had started out as all-formats opener before moving to one-down in Tests, will climb down another spot to fill the Kohli-sized void at No 4 in the upcoming series, as confirmed by his deputy Rishabh Pant earlier this week. The 25-year-old refused to take a name when asked about India's next No 3 in Tests during the pre-match press conference in Headingley on Thursday.
However, However, given the kind of red-hot form he’s has been in heading into the England tour, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat Titans opener Sai Sudharsan has made himself the top candidate to succeed the newly-appointed Test captain at the slot.
Karun Nair, meanwhile, has made himself the top candidate to fill the No 6 slot – between Pant and spin-bowling all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja – thanks to his incredible numbers in the 2024-25 domestic season.
Additionally, there will be a toss-up between seam-bowling all-rounders Shardul Thakur, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Kuldeep Yadav, in which Thakur currently appears as the front-runner given his wicket-taking ability along with his unbeaten 122 in the intra-squad match in Beckenham earlier this month.
Pace star Jasprit Bumrah won’t be playing all the matches in the series but will be leading the attack in the opening game in Headingley, sharing the new ball with Mohammed Siraj. As for the third front-line seamer, Arshdeep Singh might have to wait a bit longer for his Test debut with Prasidh Krishna ahead of him in the pecking order.
India’s predicted playing XI for the first Test against England: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, B Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur/Nitish Kumar Reddy/Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
England’s playing XI for the Headingley Test: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
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