Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 28 (ANI): Former Indian cricketer Manoj Tiwary expressed on Wednesday said that the newly appointed Indian Test team captain Shubman Gill should be encouraged and supported.

On Saturday, right-hand batter Shubman Gill was appointed as the new Test captain for India, while wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant will serve as his deputy in the longest format, as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the squad for the highly anticipated five-match Test series.

Speaking on the appointment of Gill, Manoj Tiwary told ANI, 'I think he should be encouraged and supported because it is a young team. Best wishes to him, he is a young player, and when the selection is over, the selectors should praise him, that he is going with a young team, and for the future, he is a bright star, and I hope he will do well in the captainship as well.'

At 25, Gill has become one of the youngest players to hold the position in recent years. Though he lacks captaincy experience in the red-ball format, he has led India in a five-match T20I assignment in Zimbabwe in 2024. Gill has also been captaining the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Gill has also served as vice-captain in ODIs and T20Is. He was Rohit Sharma's deputy in India's victorious Champions Trophy campaign in the UAE in February 2025. In Test cricket, Gill has played 32 matches and scored 1,893 runs, including five centuries.

The series against England will take place from June to August 2025, with matches at Headingley (Leeds), Edgbaston (Birmingham), Lord's (London), Old Trafford (Manchester), and The Oval (London).

This will be India's first bilateral series since both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirement from Test cricket earlier this month.

India's Test squad for England series: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav. (ANI)