Shubman Gill's captaincy mettle will be unveiled on June 20 at Headingley, Leeds when India locks horns with England in the first of the five-Test series at Old Blighty.

It is said a cricketer's career is incomplete without a successful tour of England. In olden days, Australian cricketers believed that playing at different grounds in England from May to September - from bone-chilling to warm weather - went a long way in "correcting" their skills and temperament.

Gill has played three Tests in England - in two World Test Championship finals against New Zealand and Australia and a bilateral series match against England. He has scored 88 in six innings and must be keen and eager not only to improve these numbers, but also show his leadership acumen.

The 25-year- old Gill, has only a modicum experience of marshalling a first class team in India's domestic tournaments like the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and the Irani Cup; much of it has been seen only while leading Gujarat Titans in the last two IPL seasons. Whether the young man from Punjab will be able to lead the team to a second IPL title win will be known sooner than later.

He would have been disappointed going down to Lucknow Super Giants and Chennai Super Kings in the last two matches of the league; it has actually weakened the team's position in the leaderboard. But the important point is that Gill - named captain of the Titans after Hardik Pandya was traded off with Mumbai Indians last year - has learned the captaincy ropes all by himself with the guiding hands of former India seamer Ashish Nehra from outside the boundary line.

Nehra has often been seen near the fence and focused on each and every minute of the Titans's IPL matches and even on Sunday (May 25) Gill positioned himself deep to be at the earshot of Nehra when the CSK batters were going hammer and tongs at the home team's bowlers at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

After a dismal season-17 last year, Gill has demonstrated equanimity in the field when quickly unfolding events were taking the match away from his team. His leadership - apart from his calling to amass runs at the top of the order with Sai Sudharsan - ensured his team a playoff spot before the reverses against LSG and CSK.

Gill has been around for ten years in the Indian cricketing environment, as an under-19 star and as a senior cricketer under the stewardship of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. That he spent a good part of his upbringing under Rahul Dravid - India under -19 coach and also Head Coach of the national team - has to be seen as an education for him to get a better idea of the game being played at the highest level.

The selection committee of Ajit Agarkar, Shiv Sundar Das, Subroto Banerjee, Ajay Ratra and S. Sharath believe that five years of Test cricket (32 Tests and 1893 runs) is good enough to elevate Gill to India captaincy in the traditional multi-day Test cricket.

The circumstances- doubts about Jasprit Bumrah's availability for all Test matches because of his vulnerable back - facilitated Gill's ascent to the highest position in Indian cricket. He has led the men in blue Twenty20 team in five matches. The selection committee could have chosen Rishabh Pant or K.L. Rahul, but they did not, reasoning that they are not appointing Gill as captain for just one series, but possibly for the entire 2025-2027 WTC cycle. "I hope we have taken the right call, we are confident of Gill," said Agarkar.

Gill has seen Kohli under Head Coach Ravi Shastri and Sharma under Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir. He has said that Kohli and Sharma, along with Ravichandran Ashwin have created a blueprint for the Indian team; one can expect him to give that blueprint a twist to seal his stamp. Only three Indian captains have won a Test series in England - Ajit Wadekar, Kapil Dev and Rahul Dravid and hence the selection committee would not expect a miracle from him.

Gill has led the Titans in 26 matches and won 14, but the selection committee has not named him captain on the basis of what he has done in the last two months, leading the Titans. Agarkar revealed that feedback from the dressing room and others guided the selection committee to zero in on Gill for a job every promising Indian cricketer would covet for.

Gill will have Pant as his deputy, a development the latter may not be altogether happy about. The selection committee has made it clear though that the future of Indian cricket and its leadership will be with Gill and Pant, an outlier in Indian cricket.

The selection committee has picked a team that has a left-arm seamer in Arshdeep Singh who is yet to play a Test match, but he would find the conditions in England show bias to his type of bowling; swing and seam.

After a dismal showing against New Zealand at home (0-3 loss) and 1-3 defeat in Australia, Gill's appointment as captain - in the absence of Rohit Sharma who has retired - is the biggest change that has been caused by the selection committee. Gill is still regarded as a rookie as far as captaincy goes. But the selection committee does not mind putting him through the wringer in England.