ENG vs IND | Rishabh Pant confirms that Shubman Gill will bat at number four in the England series

‌Shubman Gill is set to take over Virat Kohli’s position in the Indian batting lineup in the five-match series against England starting on Friday. Indian vice-captain and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant confirmed that Gill will vacate his number three slot and bat at four from the first England Test at Headingley in Leeds.

Gill, the new Indian Test skipper, has played a total of 32 Tests aggregating 1893 runs, including five hundreds and seven fifties, at an average of 35.05. After starting his Test career as an opener, Gill moved to the number three slot with the start of the new World Test Championship cycle in 2023 in the West Indies. From then on he has played at one drop in 17 matches tallying more than 1000 runs and averaging 37.74.

With India starting a new WTC cycle again, Gill will take up the most sought after position in the batting lineup once adorned by Sachin Tendulkar before passing on to Virat Kohli. Pant also mentioned that he will bat at number five with the focus now shifting to the pivotal number three slot.

With Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announcing their retirement from Test cricket, KL Rahul will continue partnering Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top of the order after his impressive showing in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 and in India A’s warm-up game against England Lions. Karun Nair will be the front-runner for the number three spot after his majestic double-hundred against England Lions in the first unofficial Test batting at one drop last month.

Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sai Sudharsan are the other candidates who fancy their chances in the top order with Dhruv Jurel having an outside chance to feature in the playing eleven as a specialist batter after scoring three fifties in four innings against the Lions. Ravindra Jadeja is expected to feature as the lone spinner with the all-rounder slot to be decided between Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shardul Thakur.

On the bowling front, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj pick themselves with Prasidh Krishna and Akash Deep fighting it out for the third pacer’s slot. Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav may also find their way into the playing eleven based on the conditions of the venue and the requirements of the team management.