Shubman Gill will make his captaincy debut for India in the longest format. India will have a lot to prove, especially after the retirements of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravi Ashwin. But England will be keen to get a win here. They have already announced a strong playing XI for the game. India under Shubman Gill will have to decide the right combination.
After a long wait, the Indian fans will see their team in action. Team India under Shubman Gill are set to face England in a five-match test series, starting on June 20. The first test is placed to be held at Headingley, Leeds, starting at 3:30 PM in the afternoon.
After nearly one and a half years, India and England are set to lock horns in red-ball cricket as they kick off a five-match Test series from June 20 at Headingley, Leeds. The series called the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy also records the beginning of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 cycle for both teams.
ENG vs IND : Previous Performances
In the last WTC cycle, England ended fifth with 11 wins in 22 Tests. On the other hand, India finished third after a historic 3-0 series loss to New Zealand at home, followed by a 3-1 defeat in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, missing out on the final. Meanwhile England, under Ben Stokes, have already named their XI for the curtain raiser.
Chris Woakes, Josh Tongue, and Brydon Carse will handle the pace duties, while Shoaib Bashir will play as the lone spinner. Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett will open, with Joe Root and Ollie Pope in the top four. Notably, four English players, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Carse, and Tongue, will be playing against India for the first time.
For India, the absence of stalwarts like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravichandran Ashwin, who recently retired from Test cricket, marks a transitional phase. Shubman Gill, who was recently announced as the captain, with Rishabh Pant as his deputy, will lead a relatively young team.
Middle-order batter Karun Nair, who has been named in the squad after his heroics in domestic cricket, is set to make a return in the XI after a gap of eight years. Furthermore, Sai Sudharsan, who impressed the selectors with his white-ball abilities, is expected to make his Test debut. The side has added Harshit Rana from the ‘A’ squad for the Leeds Test as of now.
ENG vs IND : Head to Head
Historically, England and India have played 135 Tests, with England winning 51, India 35, and 50 ending in draws. With both teams combining youth and experience, an exciting duel is expected in Leeds.
| Matches Played | Â Â Â Â Â Â 136 |
| England won | Â Â Â Â Â Â 51 |
| India won | Â Â Â Â Â Â 35 |
| Â Â Â Â Draw | Â Â Â Â Â Â 50 |
| Â First Meeting | 25th to 28th June, 1932 |
| Â Last Meeting | 7th to 9th March, 2024 |
ENG vs IND : Pitch and Weather Report
The Headingley pitch in Leeds is expected to provide a fair contest between bat and ball for the first Test. While historically, it has been a bowler-friendly venue with seam and bounce. However, chief curator Richard Robinson has prepared a wicket that could flatten out as the match progresses.
The surface wears a greenish tinge on the eve of the Test but is expected to ease out after offering some help early but with hot and sunny weather predicted for the duration of the Test, it should ease out and get progressively better for batting. Recent history at Headingley suggests teams will prefer to bowl first – both the two latest county matches played here in May followed that script.
Start out as a green seamer, flatten out thereafter. This is how Headingley’s pitches have behaved over recent years: lowest collective average (27.48) in the first and second innings of all English grounds that have hosted at least five Tests since 2010, and best collective average (33.65) in the third and fourth innings.
Bowl first is almost certainly the way to go at Headingley: teams bowling first have won each of the last six Tests at the venue, and the last four fourth innings here have produced successful chases of 322, 359, 296 and 251.
There is potentially one counterbalancing factor, though. The weather in Leeds has been unusually warm and dry in the lead-up to the Test against India starting on Friday, and if this persists (though there is rain forecast over the five days of the match), there is a chance for the pitch to break up more than it usually does.
Ahead of the Test, he revealed that the pitch is set to allow a full five-day game with first-innings scores around 300. Notably, it is expected to be sunny and warm for the first three days, with temperatures hovering around 29°C, with a slight chance of rain on the final two days.
ENG vs IND : Big Picture : England’s inexperienced bowling might be a blessing for Shubman Gill’s India
You might remember The Oval Test of 2011. A recall for RP Singh when he was on vacation in Miami, a double-hundred for Ian Bell, a six-for for Graeme Swann, a third century from Rahul Dravid in a backs-to-the-wall tour, a 42-ball pair for Suresh Raina, and the final coat of whitewash in England 4, India 0.
That was the last time India went into a Test match without any of – in order of Test-cap number – Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma in their XI. Fourteen years on, none of those players will be around when India take the field against England on Friday. Leeds will mark the start not just of a new Test series in England – and not just the start of a new World Test Championship cycle for both teams – but also a new era in Indian cricket.
It feels portentous to look ahead to a new series by looking back to 2011 and 4-0, but it’s appropriate too. India hit the reset button within a year of that tour, and began to assemble the most versatile and most successful team in their Test-match history. They begin this 2025 tour with the unenviable task of trying to match or better that team’s achievements with a largely new set of players.
The end of the old era was abrupt, with three retirements in the space of one tour, and there’s no soft launch for the new one – no home series against a low-ranked opposition to ease players into new roles. The Shubman Gill era begins with a resounding splash at the deep end, away in England.
For all that, though, India won’t be facing the England of 2011, 2014, 2018 or 2021-22. Those four series were significant points on the remarkable career graphs of Stuart Broad and James Anderson. Broad will take part in this series too, as a commentator, and Anderson as a name on the trophy.
England, then, have inexperience to worry about too. It will worry them that this inexperience is concentrated in the department that’s most vital to winning Test matches in English conditions: fast bowling. Mark Wood and Olly Stone are out with long-term injuries, and while Gus Atkinson, and – for the first time in four years – Jofra Archer could feature in the second Test, they won’t start the series. There is vulnerability here, and India will know that. And India have Jasprit Bumrah.
A year on, the same question flips to India: can they be braver than England were last year, or than they themselves were more recently in Australia. Brave enough to pick attacks that can take 20 wickets. Because there are possibilities when you flip departments.
As Rishabh Pant pointed out, they won’t have to face James Anderson or Stuart Broad. One of them has the trophy co-named after him. The other is commentating, leaving behind two frontline seamers with just eight Tests between them. But throw in a fit-again Woakes and a fully involved Stokes in these conditions, and it’s like having Ashwin and Jadeja at home for India, batting depth, bowling teeth in helpful conditions, all rolled into one.
And so begins the journey for India’s Gen-Z captain, not in a fortress, but in a place where control is an illusion. Where bear pits crumble, legends cling to walls, and matches rarely follow the script. For India, this isn’t just the start of a series, it’s the start of something bigger. A new team, a new cycle, and even a new trophy, named after Anderson and Sachin Tendulkar, two giants of the modern game, now fittingly etched into the frame of what follows.
ENG vs IND : Vital Stats that matters
- Shubman Gill (25 years and 285 days old on day one) is set to become India’s fifth-youngest test captain behind MAK Pataudi, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri, and push Kohli (26 years and 34 days) down to sixth place.
- Bumrah has dismissed Joe Root nine times in Test cricket. Bumrah hasn’t dismissed any other batter as often, and only Pat Cummins (11 times) and Josh Hazlewood (10 times) have dismissed Root more often.
- Since 2018, the year of his first tour of England, KL Rahul has made more runs (597 at an average of 37.31) and more hundreds (two) than any other visiting opener in England.
- India have played seven previous Tests at Headingly, losing four, drawing one, and pulling off famous wins in 1986 and 2002.
- The last time India played here, they were bundled out for 78 in their first innings, their third-lowest total in England. Their second-highest total in this country – 628 – also came at this venue
- Bumrah needs five wickets to become the first Indian bowler to take 150 wickets in SENA countries. Only Wasim Akram (146) has more among Asian bowlers.
- Joe Root has 2846 runs at 58.08 and 10 hundreds against. No one has scored more runs vs India in Tests. But he has been dismissed 9 times in the format by Bumrah.
ENG vs IND : Team News for England and India
England
The hosts named their XI on the eve of the game, retaining Ollie Pope at No. 3 over Jacob Bethell. Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue will get first crack as a fast bowling pair.
On paper, the batting looks stronger than the bowling. India will be relieved that Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum have asked James Anderson to step aside. Yet, even without him, England’s bowling attack is well suited to home conditions. The batting, especially the middle order, is capable of taking the game away from any opposition.
England’s potential vulnerability lies in early wickets. If the top order lays a solid foundation, Root, Brook, and Stokes could take control. The aggressive brand of cricket England has adopted under Stokes and McCullum is exciting, but it could open doors for India to exploit.
England Playing XI : 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
All signs point to Karun Nair’s return to the Indian Test XI after eight years, at No.3. The toss up for the sixth batter then comes down to Nitish Reddy and Sai Sudharsan and on evidence of the practice sessions, the all-rounder is set to start the series and have four fast bowlers following him in the XI with Shardul Thakur best suited for No. 8.
Shubman Gill will take over the No. 4 slot vacated by Kohli, and Rishabh Pant will bat at No. 5. It leaves India needing to pick two out of Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and the uncapped B Sai Sudharsan and Abhimanyu Easwaran to bat at Nos. 3 and 6. Going by the precedent of the Australia tour, there’s even a chance India could play three of those five – two specialist bats plus Reddy as a seam-bowling allrounder.
If they resist the temptation to hedge their bets and extend their batting, they could choose between the bowling allrounder Shardul Thakur and the wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav to occupy the No. 8 slot. Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj seem certain to start as the two senior fast bowlers, with either Prasidh Krishna’s height and bounce, Akash Deep’s accuracy and seam movement, or Arshdeep Singh’s left-arm swing in support.
India Predicted Playing XI : Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna.
Eng vs Ind Fantasy XI : Rishabh Pant,Joe Root (Captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ben Duckett, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Ravindra Jadeja (Vice Captain), Jasprit Bumrah, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse
ENG vs IND : Players in the Spotlight : Chris Woakes and Shubman Gill
Thanks to England’s injury issues, they start the series with two fast bowlers, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue, with eight Tests between them, and an offspinner, Shoaib Bashir, with 16. Without a genuine fifth bowler, England might also have to rely on Ben Stokes taking on a bigger bowling workload than he has been accustomed to in recent years.
In this context, Chris Woakes becomes a key player. He has played 57 Tests, is nearing the 200-wickets milestone, and has an outstanding record in England: 137 wickets at an average of 21.59. And Woakes has come into his own as the senior man in England’s attack over recent months, taking 31 wickets at 23.58 in eight post-Anderson Tests.
Shubman Gill about to become India’s 37th men’s Test captain, lead them into a new era, and slip into the role he has always looked destined for: Kohli’s successor as the defining face of Indian cricket.
Shubman Gill is also about to go into his 33rd Test match with a batting average of 35.05. It’s a slightly misleading figure, because he has played a lot of his Test cricket on spicy pitches – top-seven batters average 32.10 in matches involving Shubman Gill – but you still expect someone of Shubman Gill’s lavish gifts to have better numbers. He sets high standards for himself too, and what better time to lay down a marker than his first series as captain
ENG vs IND : Match Prediction
Match Scenarios
If India bat first:
India should aim for 300-330 runs in the first innings. With top pacers like Bumrah and Arshdeep, they can try to bowl out England for a low total and set a big target in the last innings.
If India bat second:
They must try to bowl out England for under 250 runs. A big chase could be tough against England’s strong pace attack at home.
If England bat first:
England should aim for 330-350 runs in the first innings. This will put pressure on the young Indian side, as many of their batters are still new at this level. England’s bowlers like Tongue and Woakes on their home pitches can make things difficult for Indian batters.
If England bat second:
If bowling first, England should try to keep India under 250 runs. This will give them the upper hand, as India also has a powerful bowling attack led by Bumrah and Siraj. If there is a result in the first Test, the losing side could face an uphill battle for the rest of the series. While a five-Test series provides room to recover, an early defeat can shift momentum decisively. Winning the opener and setting the tone will be the aim for both teams.
Also Read:Â ENG vs IND : Shubman Gill Appointed Test Skipper For Red Ball