India named top-order batsman Shubman Gill as the new Test captain, the cricket board said Saturday, as it announced the team for next month's tour of England.
Gill, 25, succeeds Rohit Sharma, who retired from Tests recently along with Virat Kohli. He will take charge in the five-Test series in England starting June 20.
Gill will lead a team in transition after Rohit, 38, and Kohli, 36, walked away from the five-day format in the space of six days this month to leave a big void.
"Shubman Gill-led TeamIndia are READY for an action-packed Test series," the Board of Control for Cricket in India said in a statement.
His vice-captain will be Rishabh Pant.
Gifted with a wide range of shots, Gill has led Gujarat Titans into the play-offs of this year's Indian Premier League T20 tournament.
"Obviously, he's very young but we've seen the improvement," chief selector Ajit Agarkar told reporters after the team announcement in Mumbai.
He said that, as well as Gill's IPL performances, the board "take feedback from a lot of people" and the choice was a "unanimous decision".
"It's obviously going to be a high-pressure job. But we're hopeful that we've picked the right guy. I mean, he's a terrific player," Agarkar said.
"It's a big job, big transition," he said, especially with "two of our big players retiring".
"We were all confident that he is the guy to take us forward", he said.
Shami 'setback'
However, pace bowler Mohammed Shami has been left out of the 18-member squad due to fitness concerns, Agarkar said.
"He's had a little bit of a setback over the last week or so," Agarkar said, adding medical scans had ruled Shami out for the series.
Pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah is in the squad, although he will not be able to play all five Tests. Bumrah's workload is being managed while he recovers from a career-threatening back injury – a key reason for him not getting the Test captaincy.
Bumrah was Rohit's deputy in India's last Test tour of Australia.
Fast bowler Mohammed Siraj returns after he was dropped from the ODI team for the Champions Trophy this year.
Batsman Karun Nair, who hit an unbeaten 303 against England in Chennai in 2016, will make a comeback eight years after he last played a Test for India.
Gill's opening partner at Gujarat, Sai Sudharsan, who leads the IPL batting chart with 638 runs, also made the cut.
Agarkar said coach Gautam Gambhir and Gill will decide the batting order and who will replace Rohit and Kohli as opener and number two batter.
Gill has played 32 Tests, scoring 1,893 runs at an average of 35.05, with five hundreds, since his debut in Melbourne in 2020.
He has been a mainstay of India's batting in Test and ODI cricket and played a key role in the team's 50-overs Champions Trophy title in Dubai this year.
The Tests in England will be India's first in the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle.
The opener is at Headingley, followed by the second Test at Edgbaston from July 2.
Lord's hosts the third Test from July 10, with the fourth at Old Trafford beginning July 23 and the final Test at The Oval from July 31.
Squad: Shubman Gill (capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (vice-capt, wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Arshdeep Singh.
Match info
Uefa Champions League Group B
Barcelona v Tottenham Hotspur, midnight
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Veil (Object Lessons)
Rafia Zakaria
Bloomsbury Academic
The cost of Covid testing around the world
Egypt
Dh514 for citizens; Dh865 for tourists
Information can be found through VFS Global.
Jordan
Dh212
Centres include the Speciality Hospital, which now offers drive-through testing.
Cambodia
Dh478
Travel tests are managed by the Ministry of Health and National Institute of Public Health.
Zanzibar
AED 295
Zanzibar Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, located within the Lumumba Secondary School compound.
Abu Dhabi
Dh85
Abu Dhabi’s Seha has test centres throughout the UAE.
UK
From Dh400
Heathrow Airport now offers drive through and clinic-based testing, starting from Dh400 and up to Dh500 for the PCR test.
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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