Why Shubman Gill didn’t pick Arshdeep Singh for 1st Test against England

Arshdeep Singh did not make it to India's playing XI in the first Test of the five-match series against England at Headingley. Arshdeep, who hasn't made his Test debut yet, was expected to be handed his inaugural game in the series opener, scheduled to commence on June 20.

The highly anticipated series serves as the first for both sides as far as the 2025-27 cycle of the World Test Championship is concerned. England enter the series as favourites, and it will be an intriguing watch as to how the Shubman Gill-led India will compete in the challenging English conditions.

Toss Update

England won the toss and opted to field first. Ben Stokes was keen on utilising the conditions on offer and striking early with the ball. On being asked what he would have done, Gill answered that he would have opted to field first, too.

Arshdeep misses out, India proceed with four-member pace attack

Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna were the three pacers who were shortlisted. While Bumrah and Siraj were pretty much guaranteed picks, Prasidh was backed as the third fast bowler. The all-around services of Shardul Thakur will be utilised for backup.

Arshdeep, who has represented India in the white-ball format in 72 games (63 T20Is and nine T20Is) so far, will have to wait for his turn in the red-ball format. Meanwhile, Karun Nair made a comeback after a prolonged absence of a little over eight years.

What did the captains say?

Ben Stokes (England)

We'll bowl. Headingley is a very good cricket wicket, we've had some really good games here. Want to try and use the early conditions. Been a long time coming, bit strange that this is just the second series but we're ready. It's been mixed, some lads have played county cricket, we've had three days of really good cricket. Usual suspects in the top seven, Woakes, Brydon, Bashir, Tongue and myself make up the bowling.

Shubman Gill (India)

Would've bowled first as well, might be a bit tough in the first session but it should be good to bat on later. Sun is out, should be a good batting deck for us. Preperation has been amazing, we played a practice game in Beckenham, lads are feeling great. Sai makes his debut, Karun comes in. Sai will bat at three.

Playing XIs

England

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

India

Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.