Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 24 (ANI): Right-hand batter Shubman Gill has been appointed as the new Test captain for India while wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant will serve as his deputy in the longest format, as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced squad for the highly anticipated five-match Test series against England on Saturday.

BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia and the Men's selection committee attended the meeting at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai.

Right-arm seamer Jasprit Bumrah was also considered a potential candidate for the Test captaincy; however, recurring injury concerns in recent times have diminished his prospects. Another name in contention was middle-order batter KL Rahul, but at 33, his age is seen as a limiting factor for a long-term leadership role.

India has added Abhimanyu Easwaran to the Test squad. He has been a domestic cricket stalwart for Bengal, with 101 first-class games, 7,674 runs at an average of 48.87, 27 centuries, and 29 fifties behind him. He had a disappointing tour to Australia last year, where he scored just 36 runs in four innings.

Following Kohli's retirement from the longest format of the game, a couple of budding and solidified figures like Sai Sudarshan and Karun Nair have been added to the middle-order.

Sudarshan has bided his time in India's domestic circuit and has carved out his name as a future all-format prospect, standing out as one of the prominent names to fill the everlasting void left by Virat.

The 23-year-old Tamil Nadu batter ran rampant with his sizzling batting display and mustered up 304 runs in three Ranji Trophy matches at 76.00, including a double-hundred, a century and a fifty each. When one dives deeper, Sudharsan has featured in 29 First-Class fixtures, racked up 1,957 runs, averaging nearly 40, glistened with seven centuries and five half-centuries.

Karun, who asked for a second chance with a heartfelt tweet in December 2022, made the most of the opportunity while representing Vidarbha domestically. The man who is just the second Indian to blaze his way to a triple hundred exhibited quintessential form and has pushed a case for his return to the Indian team since his last Test in 2017. He was the fourth-highest run-scorer in last season's Ranji Trophy with a staggering tally of 863 in nine appearances at 53.93.

In the bowling department, right-arm seamer Jasprit Bumrah will be leading the unit on England soil. Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh and Shardul Thakur are the other fast bowlers in the squad.

Clearing the air on right-arm pacer Mohammed Shami's inclusion in the squad, BCCI Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar said, 'Unfortunately, Shami is not available right now due to fitness reasons.'

The Indian cricket team is set to tour England in 2025 for a five-match Test series, part of the 2025-2027 ICC World Test Championship.

The series will take place from June to August 2025, with matches at Headingley (Leeds), Edgbaston (Birmingham), Lord's (London), Old Trafford (Manchester), and The Oval (London).

This will be India's first bilateral series since both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirement from Test cricket earlier this month.

India's Test squad for England series: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav. (ANI)