The Indian cricket team will enter a new era in Test cricket when they take the field in the first Test of the five-match Test series against England on June 20, as Shubman Gill will take charge of the side.

Following the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the batting unit is set for a major shake-up with a massive void of experience and pedigree to fill.The big question mark is the opening spot after Rohit's retirement. While KL Rahul opened the batting in four of the five Tests in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has picked Sai Sudharsan for the role. Ponting stated it is the right time to give the 23-year-old a debut in the longest format and Rahul's experience will help in the middle order. "…the reason I did that was if they go with (Yashasvi) Jaiswal, and if Sai Sudarshan is the other opener, they need someone a bit more experienced at number three. So that could be either, KL at three, or that could be a Karun Nair at three and Shubman at four….once you grow into it, then you can move yourself back up to that number three spot," Ponting was quoted saying by Indian Express.I think the time's right for Sudarshan to come into the side, to be honest. There's a bit of a regeneration that's going to happen around this Indian team now, obviously with Rohit and Virat not there. "Every team goes through that…seems to me like Sudarshan's ready. "Lots of first class runs, his IPL form this year has been probably better than anybody else," he pointed out about the Orange Cap winner of the just-concluded season. Technically, seems fine. And, you know, KL down in the middle order somewhere probably just gives that bit more stability," Ponting added. Sudharsan was initially slated to play the second India A game against England Lions, but that plan was put on hold and flew to England with the rest of the squad on late Thursday (June 5) evening. The left-handed batter who won the orange cap in the 2025 IPL has played 1 T20I and three ODIs for the national team.Rahul made a strong case to retain the opening spot by scoring a century in the second unofficial Test against the Lions in the shadow tour. Shubman Gill claimed in the pre-departure press conference that the team are yet to decide on the batting order. Sudhasan is likely to compete for a spot in the playing XI with Karun Nair, who scored a double hundred in the first match for India A.