India's Most Likely Playing XI After Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli Test Retirements

Virat Kohli is gone from Test cricket. Rohit Sharma too will never don the whites again. So, what next? Who takes the spot of these two giants and what will the new Playing XI look like when India next play a Test match?

While the emotions of these retirements weigh heavy on every Indian cricket fan but they also have an eye on the future. The dreaded 'transition' is coming up and while India have a lot of players, who will get the nod ahead of whom remains in dark.

We will get to know who are frontrunners to take a spot in the Playing XI very soon as Indian selectors sit to decide on the squad for the five Test matches. The squad will give an outline of which players will be in reckoning and which players will still have to wait for their chances.

Let us check what the Indian Playing XI might look like in the first Test of India's tour to England.

Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul are set to open the innings for India and it is quite likely that the duo will be looked at as a long-term opening pair for the Test side. Number three and four are where the Gautam Gambhir-led Indian management will have to take a big call. Will they be willing to continue with Shubman Gill at three or push him at four with a hugely-talented Sai Sudharsan taking the one down spot. Sudharsan is touted to be India's next run machine and his County experience will also come in handy in England.

Another option is to play an in-form Shreyas Iyer at four. The Mumbai batter is in terrific touch of late and a Test comeback seems to be on card. He can also be seen as a captaincy option. But his technique is where things might not go in his favour.

Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar played at number five, six and seven in Australia and will most likely retain their spots.

One of Nitish Kumar Reddy or Shardul Thakur might get the spot of the pace bowliing all-rounder. If Gambhir and co want to go bowling heavy they will have to trust Shardul and if they want to get more from the bat, Reddy will get a chance.

The pace bowling will be similar to what it was in Australia. Jasprit Bumrah will lead the attack with Mohammed Siraj being the second in command. With Mohammed Shami being out of form in IPL and age not on his side, will the management still trust him or go to a younger option.

If the management decides to move on from Shami, Prasidh Krishna and Arshdeep Singh seem to be the front-runners. Both of them have had a good IPL 2025 and would be expected to get a chance. While Krishna is the more expereinced, Arshdeep's swing bowling is more suited to the English conditions.

India's Probable Test XI After Rohit, Kohli Retirement

• Jaiswal

• Rahul

• Sudharsan/Iyer

• Gill

• Pant

• Jadeja

• Sundar

• Reddy/Thakur

• Bumrah

• Siraj

• Shami/Krishna/Arshdeep

India's tour of England 2025 will begin June 20 in Headingley with the fifth and final Test starting July 31.