- By Namrata Vijay
- Fri, 16 May 2025 07:33 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
India New Test Captain Announcement: The BCCI has to keep a lot of factors in mind before announcing the team for the five-match Test series against England. Earlier this month, Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the longest format and thus ended his 11-year Test career as he played from 2013 to 2025.
Rohit's retirement has left a captaincy gap, and the selectors should choose a new skipper as the Men in Blue start their 2025-27 WTC cycle soon. Star Pacer Jasprit Bumrah led the team from the front during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Perth and Sydney, and he is a strong contender to become a Test captain.
But, Bumrah has pulled out from the captaincy position race owing to workload management, and there are high chances that he might not play all five Tests against England. This decision might provide an opportunity to someone like Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant, who are also now strong contenders for this position.
Gill boasts of an experience of leading the team in the shortest format and has been captaining GT since the IPL last year. At the same time, Rishabh Pant led the team in five T20Is way back in 2022 and has also captained IPL teams like DC and LSG.
Let's take a look at who can replace Rohit Sharma as India's new Test captain:
1. Jasprit Bumrah: India's star pacer has been the vice-captain of the Indian team under Rohit Sharma's captaincy. He led the team from the front in three Test matches [one against England and two against Australia]. If he does become the Test captain permanently, then he would become the second pacer, besides Kapil Dev, to have led the team.
But one of the biggest concerns is his fitness. With him already being a pacer and then a skipper, it would mean asking a lot from him both physically and mentally.
When a pacer completes his over, he usually goes back to his fielding position and takes a break. But if you are the skipper, then your responsibilities also increase as you are constantly deciding who to send into the bowl next and how to set the field placements.
2. Shubman Gill
It would be a good idea for the team management to think about the future and hand over the Test captaincy to someone like Shubman Gill. Gill, who is currently leading GT from the front in IPL 2025, has represented India in 32 Tests, where he has scored 1893 runs, at a staggering average of 35.05.
Since his performance in England hasn't been that impressive, as he batted at an average of 14.66, there might be a slight risk involved in giving him the captaincy at this point, as he is just 25 years old.
Even though he hasn't led the team from the front in the longest format or the 50-over format, he did lead a T20I team for a five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe last year.
3. Rishabh Pant
He is another contender that the selectors have in mind to hand over the Test captaincy to. Pant, despite being 27 years old, is still considered a youngster. He can very comfortably take over this responsibility.
If he does become the Test skipper, then he would join former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who also led the Test team from the front and helped achieve top Test rankings way back in 2009.
Pant does have the advantage of being the wicket-keeper captain in that, since he is standing behind the stumps, he has a better understanding of how to set the fielders.
4. KL Rahul
If the BCCI is looking for an experienced Test captain, then KL Rahul is the answer. Rahul, just like Jasprit Bumrah, has led the team from the front in this format against teams like South Africa way back in 2022.
The Indian team has won two out of the three Test matches that they have played under his captaincy, and that's why picking him as the captain won't be a bad idea.
Ever since he made his Test debut against Australia way back in 2014, he has been one of the country's best Test batters, as he has scored 3257 runs after playing in 58 Test matches at a brilliant average of 33.57.