The national selection committee is set to meet at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai on Saturday to pick the team for the upcoming five-Test series in England, starting June 20, marking the start of a new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.

Following the recent Test retirements of the talismanic batting duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, the team will have a new Test skipper, with Shubman Gill being touted as the front-runner for the job.

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The stylish right-hander, who has long been projected as the Test captain-in-waiting, is likely to lead the side that includes big names, including Jasprit Bumrah, who had led India to a victory in the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in Perth late last year, and also captained India in the final Test in Sydney in January this year, after Rohit had kept himself out of the playing XI following a lean patch with the bat.

While Gill, 25, appears a long-term option for the captain’s job with age by his side, the selectors could name wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant as his deputy in red-ball cricket. As for Bumrah, the workload management of the premier pacer might not allow him to feature in all five Tests against England, and thus the selectors in all likelihood would want to groom Gill as the new leader of the pack.

Gill has played as an opener and also at No. 3 in Test cricket for India, and in the 32 Tests that he has featured in, he has scored 1893 runs, with five centuries and seven fifties. However, according to multiple sources, Gill is now seen as the new No.4 and could take the place that Kohli vacated after dominating it for the past decade.

Barring a couple of new names, the selectors are expected to announce a familiar squad, comprising virtually the same names that toured Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in November-January.

Among those, Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair, who have performed consistently in the last domestic season, are likely to be rewarded with berths. Nair, who had been a prolific scorer in the domestic circuit, notching up 863 runs in nine Ranji Trophy games with four centuries and 779 runs in eight Vijay Hazare Trophy innings with five centuries, could be picked in the squad. Nair, who had already played Test cricket for India, and scored a triple century, has already been picked in the India A squad that will leave for England in a couple of days.

Similarly, Sudharsan, who currently leads the batting chart in IPL 2025 with 638 runs, has also earned his place in the India A side for the second match against England Lions. Sudharsan, who opens the batting with Gill for the Gujarat Titans, is however, unlikely to open in England.

KL Rahul, who formed a successful opening combination with Yashasvi Jaiswal for a few Tests in Australia, could be retained in the same position, and if Gill moves down to No.4, then the No.3 slot could go to either Nair or Sudharsan. Rahul’s elevation might also open the door for another batter or a batting allrounder, and in such a scenario, Sarfaraj Khan and Nitish Kumar Reddy could be the new No.6.

Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar could be the preferred spinning options, given their lower-order batting potential, while Kuldeep Yadav could be the lone specialist spinner.

With Mohammed Shami’s fitness for Test cricket under a cloud, the selectors might want to play safe and leave out the 34-year-old, who has not played a Test match since the WTC final against Australia in June 2023.

As such the pace department will have familiar faces in Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, alongside the likes of Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep and Harshit Rana. The selectors might also be tempted to recall Shardul Thakur, considering his lower-order batting prowess. Pant and Dhruv Jurel are the most likely wicketkeeping options in the squad.