London: It’s transition time for the Indian cricket team.
For the first time in more than a decade, the senior trio of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin is missing from an important overseas tour.
After Shubman Gill was chosen as Rohit’s successor as captain, the next important decision was to find the right person to fill the No. 4 batting slot vacated by Kohli.
On Wednesday, two days before the five-match Test series against England gets underway at Headingley in Leeds, vice-captain Rishabh Pant revealed that the new skipper himself will bat at No. 4, while the wicketkeeper-batter will come in at No. 5.
Kohli, who announced his retirement from Test cricket last month, was a vital cog in India’s batting line-up and batted at No. 4 from 2013 till his retirement – in 160 of his 210 innings. As many as 7,564 runs out of his aggregate Test tally of 9,230 and 26 of his 30 Test centuries were scored batting at No. 4. Before Kohli, the one and only Sachin Tendulkar was India’s talismanic No. 4 for more than two decades.
Obviously those are big shoes to fill, and Gill has taken the responsibility.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul will be the openers, but the team management is yet to finalise the No. 3 position. Gill had been opening with Rohit in his first 16 Test matches, but for the last two-and-a-half years, the elegant right-hander batted at No. 3 ever since Jaiswal broke into the scene.
Gill’s Gujarat Titans opening partner Sai Sudharshan, who impressed one and all during IPL 2025, is likely to be handed a Test debut on Friday, and is being considered for the No. 3 slot. In that case, the experienced Karun Nair, who is set for a Test comeback after nearly eight years, will bat at No. 6.
If, on the other hand, the selectors want an experienced hand at No. 3, they could give that role to Nair.
“There are still discussions going on about who will bat at number three. Shubman will bat at number four. I will continue to bat at number five as of now,” Pant said at a press conference.
As for the bowling attack in the opening Test, Ravindra Jadeja is likely to provide the spin option and bat at No. 7, followed by a pace bowling allrounder (Nitish Reddy or Shardul Thakur), and three specialist fast bowlers – Jasprit Bumrah for sure, and two from among Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Arshdeep Singh.
