India are all set to travel to England as they aim to start their crucial World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 cycle with a five-match Test Series. India will now have a new captain for the series, as on May 7, Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the longest format of the game. However, it looks like retiring before the England series was never the plan for the former India captain. The selectors had a role to play in Rohit taking this step.

According to a report by Sky Sports, Rohit Sharma did not want to retire before the England series. He wanted to travel to England and retire mid-series like MS Dhoni had done in 2014 vs Australia, and passed on the baton of Test captaincy to a young Virat Kohli.

However, the selectors did not agree with this because they wanted consistency in the side throughout the tour to England. They did offer Rohit a chance to be in the squad, but not as the captain. He did not agree to this offer, and hence retired before the start of the tour.

Virat Kohli, too, will not be part of the series as he too has also retired from the longest format of the game.

The Sky Sports report has also stated that Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant are the two leading candidates to replace Rohit Sharma as the new Test captain, after Jasprit Bumrah opted out of the race since he might not play all five Tests vs England due to workload management.

However, the selectors are divided over who to name among Pant or Gill as the new Test Captain. One selector has reservations regarding Gill as he is not an automatic first-team choice for India in the longest format. He believes that Giull is more suited to a vice-captaincy role.