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On Saturday, May 23, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India’s 18-member squad for the highly-anticipated Test series against England. With the two quality teams set to lock horns in the five-match series, it will commence on June 20 with the first Test at Headingley, it will conclude on August 4, with the final Test, scheduled to be played at the Kennington Oval in London.
As expected, Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar confirmed Shubman Gill as the new Test captain after Rohit Sharma put down curtains to his Test career earlier this month, Rishabh Pant was named the vice-captain. The decision from the Indian cricket board came after Jasprit Bumrah reportedly informed them of his unavailability, owing to his fitness and workload management.
Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Shami and Axar Patel snubbed of a place in India squad
While Mohammed Shami was the biggest name to miss out after being medically assessed following his recent struggles during the IPL 2025, Shreyas Iyer also was sidelined. When asked about Iyer’s absence, Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar stated, “Shreyas had a good one-day series, played well in domestic as well, but right now there’s no room in Test cricket.”
Seeing him miss the crucial Test series with no Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as well, fans took no time to flood social media, hitting out at the selection committee. A user named Ankit wrote, “452 runs at an average of 90.40 with 2 centuries, yet Shreyas Iyer is ignored for the Test team. Ajit Agarkar and Gautam Gambhir’s favouritism and insecurity are killing merit. I wish Shreyas had a PR team like Shubman Gill.”
Check out how fans reacted to Iyer’s snub:
India's Test squad for England series
Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav
