India cricket team will kick start their World Test Championship 2025/27 cycle by taking on England in the 1st Test at Headingley, Leeds on June 20. The series will mark the start of a new era for the Men in Blue under the captaincy of Shubman Gill following the departure of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Gill and Gambhir have had quite some time to think about their playing XI for the 1st Test but are still faced with certain selection headaches.
Predicted India playing XI for 1st Test
| Position | Player | Role |
| 1. | Yashasvi Jaiswal | Opener |
| 2. | KL Rahul | Opener |
| 3. | Shubman Gill (C) | Batter |
| 4. | Karun Nair | Batter |
| 5. | Rishabh Pant | Wicketkeeper |
| 6. | Nitish Kumar Reddy | All-rounder |
| 7. | Ravindra Jadeja | All-rounder |
| 8. | Kuldeep Yadav | Spinner |
| 9. | Jasprit Bumrah | Bowler |
| 10. | Mohammed Siraj | Bowler |
| 11. | Prasidh Krishna | Bowler |
On bench: Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shardul Thakur, Akash Deep, Sai Sudharsan, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar
Nitish to pip Shardul?
Nitish Kumar Reddy is likely to be picked in the playing XI for the 1st Test ahead of Shardul Thakur. Both all-rounders tasted fair bit of success, with both bat and ball, in the India A series against England Lions.
In the two unofficial Tests, Reddy scored a half-century and picked up two wickets. On the other hand, Thakur also bagged a couple of wickets and registered a highest score of 34. In the practice match between India A and India, Shardul managed to score an unbeaten 122-run knock and was among the wicket takers, being able to extract some movement from the surface.
While Thakur can surely come in as a boost for India’s bowling attack, the team is expected to prefer Nitish instead in order to strengthen their batting. Make no mistake, Shardul is no stranger to batting in England. He has three fifties from four Tests that he has played in England so far, with the last one coming in 2023.
The series against England will be the first time Nitish will be playing in the UK. He made his debut earlier in the series against Australia and scored a gritty hundred as well.
So, it might not be form vs experience which will determine whether Nitish or Shardul will make it to the playing XI. Rather, it will depend on if India want to focus on having a batter who can also bowl instead of it being the other way around in order to have a deep batting line-up.
Krishna in, Arshdeep out
India’s pace attack will be spearheaded by their best bowler Jasprit Bumrah. Siraj, the second most overworked bowler in the previous calendar year, will play second fiddle. As for the third pacer, Prasidh Krishna is expected to make the cut ahead of Arshdeep Singh, which means the southpaw will have to wait for his Test debut.
Krishna has been in the form of his life recently, having finished as the highest wicket-taker in IPL 2025. In his last Test (against Australia in Sydney), he finished with 6 wickets to his name despite making a Test appearance after what was nearly a year.
Arshdeep, on the other hand, could be very useful for India as he can get the ball to swing both ways. However, Krishna is more experienced in terms of playing red-ball cricket and hence is expected to be picked in the playing XI ahead of Arshdeep.
Top six in focus
KL Rahul is likely to replace Rohit Sharma as India’s new opener in Tests. After all, he is no stranger to batting at that position and has tasted success while batting at the top of the order. It will be crucial for Jaiswal and him to click collectively in order to not expose the middle-order too quickly in the game.
Captain Gill will continue at number 3 while Karun Nair, who makes his return after 7 years, will be India’s new number 4, replacing Virat Kohli. Rishabh Pant will come in at five followed by Nitish and Jadeja.
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