ENG vs IND first Test Preview | Shubman Gill and new-look India aim series win in England after 18 years

‌Shubman Gill will start a new chapter in his cricketing career as India kickstart their five-Test series against England with the first match at Headingley in Leeds on Friday. Gill was appointed as the captain of the Indian Test team after Rohit Sharma, along with Virat Kohli announced their retirement from the longest format of the game last month.

Gill will helm a slightly inexperienced Indian side, one in transition, in their first Test in the new World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle. With the announcements of Rohit, Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, who retired midway through the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, the younger lot will have to step in to guide the side in a challenging series.

KL Rahul is the senior-most batter in the side and has warmed up well for the series with a century for India A in the second unofficial Test against England Lions. He is expected to open the innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal. 

Another player who will be watched with interest will be Karun Nair who is in contention to play a Test match in more than eight years. Karun also shone during the unofficial Tests against the Lions with a double hundred in the first match. With vice-captain Rishabh Pant announcing that skipper Gill will bat at four and he will bat at five, Karun looks to have sealed the crucial number three slot in the side. 

Jasprit Bumrah will play only three Tests with his workload being managed and Mohammed Siraj will be expected to lead the pace attack during Bumrah’s absence. Meanwhile, England have already announced their playing eleven for the first Test with the team management preferring Ollie Pope over Jacob Bethell for the number three slot.

India walk into the England series on the back of their 3-1 loss at Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 and would be hoping to make amends in another challenging overseas assignment. Meanwhile, England beat Zimbabwe by an innings and 45 runs in a one-off Test in their last assignment.

Former England captain Joe Root leads the run-scoring charts in Tests between India and England with a tally of 2846 runs, with 10 hundreds and 11 fifties, from 30 matches at an average of 58.08. Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is the top run-getter in India-England fixtures in the current squad aggregating 1031 runs in 20 matches scoring two hundreds and six fifties.

Jadeja is at the top of the list again for highest wicket-takers among players in the current squad with 70 wickets in 20 matches while Bumrah follows him with 60 wickets from just 14 matches. England skipper Ben Stokes has the most wickets in Tests against India from the current squad with 40 scalps in 21 matches.

Form Guide

ENG Form: LWWLW

IND Form: WLDLL

ENG vs IND head-to-head in Tests

England has a clear upper hand over India in Test matches played between both sides with 51 wins in 136 matches while India have won 35 matches with 50 games ending in draws. However, India has a better record in the last 10 matches with six wins to England’s three with one match ending in a stalemate.

ENG 51 - 35 IND

Pitch and Conditions

Headingley has been one of England’s favourite venues with the hosts winning each of their last five matches held in Leeds. The pitch is expected to support the pacers, even more with cloud cover, in the initial half of the match before conditions ease out and support batting later on. All of England’s last five wins have come batting second with three of them in run chases in the fourth innings. 

It will be a warm and sunny first day at Headingley with temperatures hovering around the 30-degree mark and chances of rain being only at five percent. The temperatures are expected to continue at the same level for day two before dropping down to the early 20s for the rest of the match. Light spells of rain are also expected during days two and three of the first Test.

Team News

England have already announced their playing eleven, choosing Ollie Pope ahead of Jacob Bethell at number three. Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue will be the three seamers alongside Shoaib Bashir as the lone spinner. For India, it will be a toss-up between Karun Nair, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sai Sudharsan for the number three spot while Dhruv Jurel is also in the race to be picked as a specialist batter.

ENG XI for first Test

Ben Stokes (c), Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir

IND Expected XI

Shubman Gill (c), KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

Broadcasting Platforms 

The ENG vs IND first Test match will be digitally streamed on the Jio Hotstar app and website in India with the telecast of the same on the Sony Sports Network from 3:30 PM IST on Friday.