 "Both Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill are closing in on the 3,000-run milestone in the Test format. Reuters")
Team India returns to the Test arena after half a year as it faces England in a five-match series that gets underway four days from now in Headingley, Leeds.
It will be a fresh start for the Indian team, with modern-day greats Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli having announced their retirement from the format more than a month before the tour, and the series marking the beginning of a new World Test Championship cycle. The BCCI has since appointed top-order batter Shubman Gill as the new Test captain with wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant as his deputy.
And Gill and Co will certainly be hoping to leave the horrors of the last two Test assignments – a historic 0-3 whitewash at the hands of New Zealand at home and a 1-3 series defeat in Australia – behind as they eye India’s first Test series victory on English soil in 18 years.
Gill, Jaiswal, Siraj closing in on personal milestones
Ahead of the series opener on Friday, we take a look at some of the individual milestones that some of the Indian cricketers are closing in on and could achieve in the Headingley Test itself.
– Captain Gill needs another 107 runs to complete 2,000 runs in Test cricket. He has scored 1,893 runs so far in 32 Tests at an average of 35.05.
– Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal too is closing in on the 2,000-run milestone, needing just 202 more runs. He has scored 1,798 runs in just 19 appearances at a stellar average of 52.88 since making his debut in the 2023 tour of West Indies.
– Jaiswal also needs another 464 runs to complete 3,000 international runs, which he might achieve in the upcoming series against England if he continues his fine form.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts– Senior wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul needs another 435 runs to complete 9,000 international runs. And like Jaiswal, he might achieve it in the five-Test series against England if he has a good run with the bat.
– Vice-captain Pant, the designated wicketkeeper-batter in the Test format, needs another 52 runs to complete 3,000 Test runs. The 27-year-old, who had made his Test debut during the 2018 tour of England, has scored 2,948 runs in 43 Tests so far at an average of 42.11.
– Senior all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja needs to score another 309 runs to complete 7,000 international runs.
– Mohammed Siraj, who is now the senior pacer in the team along with Jasprit Bumrah with the selectors overlooking Mohammed Shami, needs another 15 scalps to complete 200 international wickets.