New Delhi, June 8 -- Has Shubman Gill been thrown into the deep end with nothing more than a rubber duckie as flotation aid? The clean-cut, square-jawed, calm-eyed, close-shaved 25-year-old with 8% body fat has been given the highest honour in cricket, that of leading his country in Tests, and he begins his tenure with one of the toughest, most keenly watched assignments in Indian cricket-a five-match Test tour of England beginning 20 June.

If the importance of the series is not enough of a challenge, Gill will be leading a team not so much in transition as it is in radical overhaul.

This is the first Test series post the retirements of three of India's biggest names in Test cricket in the past decade-Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin an...