India's Batting Order vs England 1st Test: 'KL Rahul To Open, Shubman Gill At...': Huge Prediction Made

There has been a lot of chatter surrounding the Indian cricket team batting order ahead of the five-match Test series against England. With Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma announcing their retirement from the format, a lot of changes are expected in the batting line-up. With the first Test match starting in Leeds on June 20, former England captain Kevin Pietersen weighed in on the conversation. Pietersen predicted that new captain Shubman Gill will be batting at No. 3 or 4 with KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal opening the innings. He added that Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair will complete the Top 5 for Team India.

“Shubman can decide; wherever Shubman is comfortable batting, he can bat at 3 or 4. KL (Rahul) and Yashasvi will open the batting. I'd have Sai Sudarshan and Karun Nair; that's your top 5. Potentially at 6, you might look at another batter. I think in English conditions you might have to look at another batter. At the top of my head I don't know who the other batters are in your squad, but you might have to have a look at another batter, and then Pant can bat at 7, and then you have your four seamers and a spinner," Pietersen said in a video shared by Star Sports on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Meanwhile, 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.”

(With IANS inputs)

Topics mentioned in this article

Shubman Gill Sai Sudharsan KL Rahul Yashasvi Jaiswal Karun Nair India Cricket Team England Cricket Team England vs India, 2025 Cricket