India has skills but lack of experience will be telling in Eng

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June 07, 2025 16:54 IST

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'But I think if you look at a rebuilding sort of phase, I think India can cope with it better than most other teams'

B Sai Sudharsan has earned a call-up for India's England tour after a consistent show in domestic cricket

IMAGE: B Sai Sudharsan has earned a call-up for India's England tour after a consistent show in domestic cricket. Photograph: BCCI/X

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting expressed that while replacing legendary India batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma would be a hard thing to do in Test format, they have the quality and skill in their players to cope with this massive task better than other teams.

The five-test tour of England, starting June 20 at Leeds and lasting until August 2025, is set to be a heavy one for fans and players alike. With senior stars Rohit and Virat having retired from the longest format of the game, the onus lies on the Shubman Gill-led new-look Indian side to prove themselves away from home in tough English conditions and ensure that Indian cricket is safe.

 

Several newer talents and domestic cricket/Indian Premier League (IPL) performers like Dhruv Jurel, Karun Nair, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sai Sudharsan have earned a ticket to the UK as a part of the main squad.

Speaking in the ICC Review, Ponting said, "It is always very hard to replace players like that that have been around for so long, that have played that much Test cricket. But if any country can do it and do it quickly, India can because of the amount of young talent that they have."

"I have seen it first hand for 10 years around the IPL, and we have seen the emergence of (Yashasvi) Jaiswal and these sorts of guys who have come into international cricket with India and done really well pretty much straight away."

"The skill side of it is one thing to replace, and I think India will replace the skill side of it easily enough, but the experience is the big thing that will be missing for them. So now, even with a young captain with Shubman Gill, they will still have some experience with KL Rahul and (Jasprit) Bumrah and these sort of guys."

"But I think if you look at a rebuilding sort of phase, I think India can cope with it better than most other teams," he concluded.

Rohit and Kohli bid adieu to Test cricket last month.

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