Ajinkya Rahane picks India’s playing XI for first Test vs England; Karun Nair omitted

Former Indian cricketer Ajinkya Rahane took to his YouTube channel to present his India’s predicted playing XI for the first Test against England, scheduled to start on June 20 at Headingley, Leeds, under the captaincy of Shubman Gill.

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Moving into the details, Rahane has adjusted Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul as the left-right opening combination. Furthermore, he has slotted Sai Sudharsan ahead of Karun Nair at No.3 with captain Shubman Gill taking up No.4 position.

Later, Dhruv Jurel and Rishabh Pant occupy the No.5 and No.6 positions respectively. Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur are the all-round options with the former being the sole spinner in the playing XI.

Moving further, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh are part of the pace battery in Rahane’s predicted line-up for the first Test.

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Ajinkya Rahane's India predicted playing XI for first Test vs England: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Dhruv Jurel, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh

Furthermore, Rahane asserted that Gill will face a daunting task as the Test captain. He further added that captaining a team in white-ball formats is completely different. In red-ball format, the captain needs to stay one or two steps ahead of his opposition.

“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,” Rahane stated.

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"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," he added.

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