Before India's five-match series against England from June to August 2025, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma recently announced their retirements from Test cricket. Shubman Gill, India's freshly selected Test captain, offered his thoughts on their leadership philosophies.

Prior to India's forthcoming tour of England, which kicks off the ICC World Test Championship 2025–27 cycle on June 20, after 11 years and 67 Test matches, Rohit Sharma announced his retirement on May 7.

On May 12, Virat Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket, capping a career spanning 123 matches during which he amassed 30 hundreds and 9230 runs.

Shubman Gill, in an interview, was asked about his learnings about captaincy, seeing both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma leading the Indian team. Gill talked about Rohit Sharma and praised his aggressive tactical approach and communication style.

"Rohit bhai is also very aggressive in terms of his tactics. Tactically, he's quite an aggressive captain. He is someone who is very clear with his communication before the matches, during the series, and even after the series, about what he wants from the players.

The kind of environment I think Rohit bhai keeps. Like, even if Rohit bhai is swearing at you, you would not take it to your heart. That's just kind of his personality. And I think that's a great trait to have. He's firm, but even if he's being hard on you, you know that it's not coming from his heart,” Gill told Sky Sports.  

Speaking about Kohli's captaincy, Gill highlighted his proactive approach.

"When I played under Virat bhai, I think his proactiveness in the test matches with the field or with the ideas or with his thinking was something that I liked and that I picked up. He was very proactive with his thinking. If he thinks that, okay, this plan is not working, he would immediately have another plan, communicate to the bowler what he wants from them. And it can seem like he is not aggressive,” Gill talked about Kohli’s captaincy style.

The five-match Test series will be played across various venues in England, including Headingley, Edgbaston, Lord's, Old Trafford, and The Oval.