Why is Mohammad Shami not in India’s squad for ENG vs IND 2025 series?

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced Team India’s squad for the upcoming red-ball tour of England, which includes five Test matches. Star pacer Mohammad Shami has been left out.

Speaking on not selecting Shami for the tour, chairman of the selection committee, Ajit Agarkar, pointed out the pacer's fitness concern, saying (via News18):

"He’s had a little bit of a setback over the past week, got some MRIs done. Wasn’t going to be able to play five Tests. Don’t think his workload is where he needs to be. Medical guys told he’ll be ruled out. We were hoping he’ll play some part, but if he’s not fit, we’d rather pick guys fit and available rather than waiting.”

The five-match series will commence on June 20. The series opener will be played at Leeds (Headingly), followed by the second Test at Edgbaston (Birmingham). The third Test will be hosted by the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, with the fourth and fifth Tests being played at Old Trafford (Manchester) and The Oval (London), respectively.

The BCCI selection committee met on Saturday, May 24, and selected an 18-member squad for India’s first series of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 cycle.

India’s squad includes seven pacers and three spinners. Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, and Prasidh Krishna have made it to the list of pacers and seam-bowling all-rounders. Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, and Washington Sundar are the spinners and spin-bowling all-rounders who have found themselves a spot.

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Shubman Gill named India’s new Test captain

India’s regular Test skipper Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the longest format of the game earlier this month (May 7), vacating a spot in the top order. On Saturday, the selection committee had an added responsibility to name a new Test skipper for India.

While there were speculations about Jasprit Bumrah being named the next Test captain, Shubman Gill’s name also popped up as a leading candidate. Announcing India’s squad for the England tour, Ajit Agarkar named Gill as the team’s new Test skipper.

Notably, just a few days after Rohit’s Test retirement, Virat Kohli too decided to step away from red-ball cricket (May 12), opening the No. 4 spot in the team. With two stalwarts retiring from the oldest format of the game, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sai Sudharsan, and Karun Nair found themselves a place in India’s squad and would hope to make their way into the playing XI.

Team India's squad for the five-match Test tour of England: Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC and WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sai Sudharsan 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