ENG vs IND 2025: Rishabh Pant confirms skipper Shubman Gill's batting position in Tests

Team India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant has earned a noteworthy promotion in the Test side after being appointed as the vice-captain going forward. Pant will be acting as the deputy to ace batter Shubman Gill, who is now the new Test captain following the retirement of Rohit Sharma. The duo's first assignment will be the series against England, which is less than a couple of days away, and ahead of the series, Pant has revealed a noteworthy statement.

In the pre-match conference in Leeds on June 18, Pant has finally cleared the drama around Shubman Gill's new batting position in the red-ball side. He confirmed that Gill will now be batting at No. 4 in the format, a position previously held by Virat Kohli for the majority of his career. Moreover, the second-in-charge also confirmed that he will stick to batting at No. 5.

However, the biggest conundrum with Gill going down in his batting position is the batter who will take up the role as India's No. 3 batter in the red-ball side. The strongest contenders at the moment seem Karun Nair, Abhimanyu Easwaran, and B Sai Sudharsan, all of whom have been in stellar form of late, and are expected to be long-term options for the side following the retirement of stalwarts like Rohit and Virat Kohli.

Speaking of the first Test, the series opener is set to get underway on June 20 at the Headingley, Leeds. The exciting five-day fixture will be a key battle between English batters and Indian bowlers. England have already announced their Playing XI for the upcoming game with Ben Stokes leading the pack and Chris Woakes returning as the frontline pacer.

India squad for 1st Test vs England

Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, B Sai Sudharsan, Karun Nair, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, and Mohammed Siraj