NEW DELHI: Chief selector Ajit Agarkar acknowledged that replacing legends like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravichandran Ashwin in the Indian Test side is never easy, calling it a major transition phase for the team. The last time India played a Test match without all three—Rohit, Kohli, and Ashwin—was during the 2011 tour of England.Agarkar addressed the significance of the moment while announcing Shubman Gill as India’s new Test captain for the upcoming five-match series in England. Rishabh Pant has been named vice-captain.“When guys like that retire, always big holes to fill. Ashwin also retired. Those three have been stalwarts. Always difficult. One way of looking at it is, opportunity for someone else. Had conversations with both of them.”
Reflecting specifically on Kohli’s retirement, Agarkar added:“Virat reached out early April, seen him give 200% on every ball he plays even when he’s not batting or on the field. Felt he’d given everything he had, if he can’t keep up to the standards it was time for him. It’s come from him. Have to respect that. They’ve earned that respect.”Agarkar also spoke about moving forward with a fresh outlook in the new World Test Championship cycle:“It is a new WTC cycle, you are looking at whole lot of scenarios. All we need to do is show them respect and move on. It is a big job and big transition. We are all confident that Gill is the guy to take us forward. We are all very hopeful,” he said during the press conference at BCCI headquarters on Saturday.Full India Squad for England Tests:Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
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