Team India begin new era under Gill; Will a Malayali bat at Leeds?

Team India will begin a new era under the leadership of 25-year-old Shubman Gill at Leeds on Friday, with the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy up for grabs. Rahul Dravid was the last captain to win a Test series in England, and that was in 2007, which makes the five-match series an uphill task.

The absence of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who recently retired, could be felt on foreign soil, where experience is as important as talent. But the management might want to believe that the young batting unit to be opened by K L Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal can bat long.

Sai Sudharsan did exceptionally well in the Indian Premier League, and it is widely held that he is an all-format batter. But will the Tamil Nadu batter earn his maiden cap? This is a dilemma facing not just Gautam Gambhir and the decision-makers but fans in general.

Who follows skipper Gill in the batting order is another matter yet to be settled. Rishabh Pant's inclusion is certain, but whether he will bat at No. 5 or No. 6 is up for debate. Then there is Bengaluru-Malayali Karun Nair, who has returned to the national set-up after eight years after scoring generously in the domestic format.

He famously scored a triple hundred in his debut series against England in 2016, but hasn't played for India since 2017. Last season, Karun scored 863 runs in the Ranji Trophy and 779 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, with nine hundreds. He continued his exploits in the IPL, scoring 86 in his first match for Delhi Capitals. Karun impressed for India A ahead of the opener, scoring 204 against England Lions at Canterbury. 

Nitish Kumar Reddy did more than what was expected of him in Australia, and it would only be fair to retain him as cover. The selection issue gets a bit more complicated down the order as spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja vie for the No. 8 spot.

Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj are automatic inclusions, but there is also the choice of a third seamer, which could be a tough one between Arshdeep Singh and Prasidh Krishna.

England don't have a selection problem for the first Test because captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum picked their XI way in advance. It is as follows: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir. The match will start at 3 pm IST.