Shubman Gill breaks silence on his batting position ahead of 1st Test against England

Team India Test captain Shubman Gill has opened up about his batting position ahead of the opening Test of the five-match series against England in Leeds. The right-handed batter refused to give a clear answer on batting position to former Indian wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik during a recent interview.

Virat Kohli had been India's No. 4 in Test cricket for over a decade. However, with Kohli stepping away from the longest format, the crucial position is for a new player. Over the past month, there has been intense debate and speculation about who should fill the void and take on this role in the batting lineup.

Shubman Gill, KL Rahul Among Choices for No. 4 in Test Matches

Several former cricketers and analysts have shared their support behind Karun Nair, KL Rahul, and Shubman Gill as potential candidates to take over the No. 4 spot in India’s Test lineup following Virat Kohli’s retirement. However, no official decision has been announced yet before the series.

SHORTS

View More

Your daily dose of cricket!

Loading...

With the first Test against England set to begin on June 20 at Headingley, all eyes are on who will occupy that key middle-order position.

Only Yashasvi Jaiswal, who is expected to open, and Rishabh Pant, likely to bat at No. 5 or 6, appear to have secured spots in the batting order. The rest of the lineup remains uncertain, leaving the Indian team management with important choices to make ahead of the series.

I’m Going to Maybe Test the Waters - Shubman Gill

During a recent interview with Dinesh Karthik for Sky Sports, Shubman Gill was asked whether he would bat at No. 4 in the upcoming Test series against England. Gill, who played at No. 3 in India’s last Test series against Australia, refused to give an answer.

He stated that the final decision on the batting order will be made after the intra-squad warm-up match. Gill added that the team would use the practice game to assess which player fits best at which position.

“Not really. I think we are playing a practice game, a warm-up game, so I’m going to maybe test the waters in that one and see which batting position suits for who," Gill said, as quoted by News 18.

Shubman Gill Emerges as Frontrunner for India’s No. 4 Slot in Tests

Shubman Gill is currently the frontrunner to fill India’s No. 4 slot in Tests. Gill has opened the batting and more recently batted at No. 3 during the 2023–25 World Test Championship cycle. He has never batted at No. 4 for India in any format.

KL Rahul, who has experience batting at No. 4 in both Tests and ODIs, is expected to retain his place as an opener for the England series. He scored a century for India A against the England Lions in an unofficial Test from June 6 to 9 in Northampton.

In the 2024–25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Rahul scored 276 runs at an average of 30.67 across 10 innings. He began the series well with two fifties and 235 runs in the first three Tests, but his form dipped in the final four innings, where he managed just 41 runs.

Also read: Temba Bavuma becomes Greatest Test Captain of All Time, destroys century-old record