England vs India: Shubman Gill plays with a dead bat ahead of first series as India captain.
The inscrutable Mr. Gill has taken guard. Dead-batting everything thrown at him, staying poker-faced and giving absolutely nothing away as India depart for one of their most consequential red-ball series in recent times.
Gill found the news of his captaincy ‘overwhelming’. Facing England’s Bazzballers would be ‘exciting’. And India, without Jasprit Bumrah for all five Tests, still has a ‘good mix of experience and talent’. There was no emotion, not even a faint smile until he left the room, in this 15-minute cliche-thon.
MS Dhoni inducted to ICC Hall of Fame.
Former India captain MS Dhoni has been inducted to the ICC Hall of Fame in the batch of 2025, unveiled ahead of the World Test Championship final at Lord’s. The honour is a recognition of a stellar 14-year international career in which Dhoni won several top honours, both individually and with the Indian team.
He is the only captain to lift all three ICC senior white-ball trophies – the 50-over World Cup, the T20 World Cup and the Champions Trophy. He was also captain when India ascended to the top of the ICC Test rankings in the late 2000s.
Dhoni played 350 ODIs, scoring 10,773 runs in what was his most productive format. He also played 90 Test matches and 98 T20Is in an international career that began in December 2004. In all, he scored more than 15,000 international runs across formats, hit 16 centuries, and effected 829 dismissals as wicketkeeper.