Ind vs Eng Test series | Gautam Gambhir likely to join squad on Tuesday: Sources

Team India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir, who had earlier flown back to India due to a family emergency, is now set to return to England. The head coach had rushed home after his mother suffered a heart attack and was hospitalised.

“His mother is doing well now. Gautam will leave tomorrow and join the squad the same day,” a BCCI source told PTI.

The 43-year-old missed the intra-squad match between India and India A. In his absence, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, and bowling coach Morne Morkel supervised the team’s preparations.

Team India is set to face England in a five-match Test series starting June 20. The first match will be played at the Yorkshire Cricket Ground.

Following Rohit Sharma’s sudden retirement from Test cricket, the Indian think tank has appointed Shubman Gill as the new captain. The upcoming series will mark Gill’s first assignment as skipper in the longest format.

India will also be without the services of veterans Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin for the series.

All eyes will also be on Sai Sudharsan, who is set to make his debut in Test cricket. A key concern for India is the availability of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah. Due to workload management, Bumrah is likely to feature in only three of the five matches.

The five-match Test series will take place from June 20 to August 4, with matches scheduled at Headingley (Leeds), Edgbaston (Birmingham), Lord`s and The Oval (London), and Old Trafford (Manchester).

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.

England squad for first Test vs India: Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Ben Stokes (capt), Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes.

(With PTI Inputs)

This article first appeared on Mid Day