India vs England 2025: Key lessons for Shubman Gill and Co from practice games, WTC Final and past tours

Team India returns to action for the first time since the Rohit Sharma-led side defeated New Zealand in the final of the Champions Trophy to win their second ICC title in less than a year. A lot has changed since then, with Rohit and fellow stalwart Virat Kohli having announced their retirement from Test cricket while the 18th season of the Indian Premier League was underway.

Which means that two of the biggest superstars among the current generation of Indian cricketers will not be part of the action when the opening match of the five-Test series against England gets underway in Headingley, Leeds four days from now.

The marquee series – India’s first assignment of the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle – will mark the beginning of a new chapter in Indian cricket, with top-order batter Shubman Gill having been named Rohit’s successor as Test captain with Rishabh Pant as his deputy.

And ahead of the showdown between the two ‘Big Three’ teams, we take a look at what India will have learnt from their recent practice matches, the ICC World Test Championship final as well as past tours.

Gill, Thakur, Nair in good nick ahead of major assignment

The key performers in the recent practice matches involving India A were Karun Nair and Shardul Thakur. While the former smashed a double century in the unofficial Test in Canterbury, bowling all-rounder Thakur boosted his chances of making it to the playing XI, s mashing an unbeaten 122 in the intra-squad match against the Gill-led Indian team in Beckenham on Sunday.

Thakur isn’t an automatic starter in the team and is in competition with all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy for a slot in the lower-order. His sparkling ton, along with the fact that he is a lot more reliable as a seamer, should make Thakur a favourite heading into the England Test series.

Nair, who scored a sparkling 204 than contained 26 fours and a six , has practically locked his place in the middle-order though it remains to be seen where he ultimately gets to bat.

Captain Gill, meanwhile, doesn’t have great record when it comes to Tests in England, having played here just once during the 2021 tour. The 25-year-old, however, has been in fine touch in the white-ball formats this year including in the Champions Trophy and the IPL, and also brought up a half-century in the intra-squad match .

Good batting pitch awaits teams at ‘Home of Cricket’

The 2023-25 World Test Championship cycle concluded with a blockbuster final between title holders Australia and table-toppers South Africa on Saturday, with the Proteas pulling off a historic five-wicket victory to end a 27-year wait for a second ICC trophy and heal the wounds caused by multiple heartbreaks since their readmission in 1991.

Lord’s hosted the marquee clash this time after Southampton (2021) and The Oval (2023), and the wicket prepared for the South Africa-Australia clash appeared to be a minefield initially with 14 wickets falling on each of the first two days.

The batting collapses, however, had more to do with the fact that the two teams boast of the best attacks in the world at present than the wicket itself, which became evident later in the game as South Africa ended up cruising to victory after being set a daunting 282-run target thanks to Aiden Markram’s magnificent 136 along with a fighting 66 from captain Temba Bavuma.

The iconic venue hosts the third match of the five-Test series between India and England from 10 to 14 July and both teams can expect something similar – a good strip for batters but plenty of help for pacers depending on overhead conditions, with some help for tweakers later in the game.

Strong start certainly helps, but doesn’t guarantee eventual desired outcome

Beating England in England is far easier said than done – India have won a Test series just thrice since they played their first-ever Test, at Lord’s in 1932. The last of those triumphs had come under Rahul Dravid’s leadership in 2007; Kohli and company had nearly pulled off a memorable victory in 2021, but were ultimately held to a 2-2 draw with the final Test of the series getting delayed to the next summer due to a COVID outbreak.

India had lost by scorelines of 1-4, 1-3 and 0-4 in 2018, 2014 and 2011 respectively, and the key lesson from those tours is the fact that while a strong start certainly helps – which was the case the last time India toured England in 2021 – it has to be sustained throughout the course of the five-match series.

England, and especially the current bunch led by Ben Stokes in the ‘Bazball Era’, are a tough nut to crack in their own backyard – just ask the Australians, who have not won a series here since 2001. And for Gill and Company to end an 18-year wait for another triumph, sustained momentum will be the key.

That and the ability to hand the prodigious swing on offer thanks to the unique traits of the Dukes ball along with the wet and overcast conditions that are typical of the English summer and only adds to the challenge for batters.