Beckenham, June 15: Left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav believes Shubman Gill is completely prepared to captain the Indian Test team on their five-match Test tour of England, starting in Leeds on June 20. The series against England is Gill’s first assignment as India’s Test captain after his predecessor Rohit Sharma retired from the format last month.

The Test series in England will be India’s first challenge in the 2025-27 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. “As you have seen, Shubman knows how to lead the team. He has worked under a lot of seniors as well. From the last couple of years, he has been in a lot of discussions with Rohit - not only in ODIs, but also in Tests. I am sure he has learnt a lot.”

“As a leader, from what I have seen, he is very motivated. The way he thinks is very important. He has helped the team a lot. In the last 3-4 sessions, I have seen the quality of the leadership group and I have seen that in Shubman as well. He is fully ready to lead the team,” said Kuldeep to reporters on the sidelines of day three of intra-squad practice game in Beckenham.

Without going into specific details of the intra-squad game, Kuldeep said the batters have fared well so far. “The top order have done very good batting, if we talk about both the teams. I feel that seamers have also bowled very well.”

“If you talk about fast bowlers in both the teams, I feel that Shardul has bowled very well in the first innings. In the second innings, the senior fast bowlers have bowled very well. Overall, the performance in the squad has been very good.”

This will be India’s first series after retirements of Rohit and Virat Kohli, and Kuldeep admitted the side will feel their void when the matches happen from June 20 to August 4. “When there are no seniors, you always feel their absence. The players like Virat and Rohit, who have done so much for the team. Their importance will always be felt.”

“It is an opportunity for the youngsters to perform well. They have a chance to settle in the team, and that is very important. I am sure everyone is feeling their absence in the team. But the youngsters look very excited.”

“They consider the conditions to be challenging for the battle, and are ready for it. As you can see in the practice session, the batsmen are preparing, taking a lot of time in batting and doing well in preparation.”

“100% it is a challenging series. We have got a very good team as well. Obviously, we have new faces. Everyone is very excited to start this first Test in Headingley. We are very looking forward to it,” concluded Kuldeep.

--IANS
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