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Ajinkya Rahane has excluded Karun Nair and Prasidh Krishna from his playing 11 in the 2025 Ra
Ajinkya Rahane has been India’s captain in Tests (Screengrab/ajinkyarahane88)
Karun Nair and Prasidh Krishna didn’t find a place in Mumbai captain Ajinkya Rahane’s predicted playing 11 for India’s first Test against England, which begins on Friday (June 20) in Headingley.
Rahane is currently out of favor from the Test side but has captained it to one of its greatest triumphs in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India will not only be without him, but several other key seniors like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Cheteshwar Pujara for the rubber.
That leaves an opportunity for many new names, including Nair, who is making a comeback after eight years via stupendous form in all domestic tournaments in the past year. Prasidh was India’s third seamer in Australia and the Purple Cap winner in the recently concluded IPL 2025.
However, Rahane, in a video on his YouTube channel, went with KL Rahul as Yashasvi Jaiswal’s opener, with debutant Sai Sudharsan for number three. He put new captain Shubman Gill at number four. For the number five spot, he went with Dhruv Jurel followed by Rishabh Pant and two all-rounders in Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur.
For the third pacer, he chose another debutant, left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh.
Ajinkya Rahane’s predicted 11: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Dhruv Jurel, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, and Arshdeep Singh.
It needs to be noted that vice-captain Pant has already confirmed that he’ll bat at five, leaving number three and six as the available spots, considering Rahul will open.
I am sure Gill will do well: Rahane
Rahane also spoke about Gill’s challenge to transition from T20 captaincy in the IPL to Test leadership for the first time, but also expressed confidence in the youngster’s nous.
“I think it’s going to be a challenging task for Shubman because in Test cricket I always believe you have to be proactive as a captain. I’m sure Shubman will do well, but it will take time because captaining in T20s and ODIs is completely different. In the Test format, sometimes you have to stay one or two steps ahead of your opponents, talk to your bowlers, and plan things with them. So, it’s going to be a challenging task for him, but I’m sure he will do well as both a skipper and a batter,” Rahane added in the video.
A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses, features, live scores, results, stats and everything that’s cricket from all over the globe. Follow @cricketnext
A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses, features, live scores, results, stats and everything that’s cricket from all over the globe. Follow @cricketnext
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