With a little over a week until the start of India's five-match Test series against England, most of the discussion has been on the type of playing XI that head coach Gautam Gambhir will choose for the first match at Headingley on June 20. Former India cricketer Robin Uthappa has been among the first to offer guidance to his former teammate, urging him to make a daring choice regarding the new captain, Shubman Gill.

Now that veteran batsmen Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have retired from the format, much of the debate surrounding the possible playing XI has centered on the top-order pairing. Following his century in the India match, Uthappa stated on the Star Sports program "Game Plan" that he would prefer to keep KL Rahul as an opener. Gill was moved down to the fourth position to allow Sai Sudharsan occupy the third spot after a recent game.

I'd like KL Rahul to open for me there because I want to start out stronger right at the top. "Given the kind of success he has had there, the way he batted in Australia, and the way he has batted in the past in England, it bodes well for India to get him to open the batting," he added.

I would love to see someone like Sai Sudharsan at No. 3 because of his technical proficiency and the potential he has as what we feel and believe he can do and achieve in Test cricket. Without a doubt, Shubman Gill is number four," Uthappa continued.

After that, Uthappa added Karun Nair back, who had hit a double century in the opening match for India. He chose Nitish Reddy over Mumbai's Ranji Trophy star Shardul Thakur, who received a call-up following an outstanding performance with both the bat and ball in the most recent domestic season, in a match between the two all-rounders earlier this month at No. 5.

"My No. 5 would be Karun Nair since you want a little bit of experience there. Rishabh Pant is my favorite player at number six. I believe it's his happy place. "I will have Nitish Kumar Reddy at No. 7 because he is a real fast-bowling all-rounder, your fourth fast-bowling option," he said.

Kuldeep Yadav has nowhere to go

To increase the depth of the batting lineup, Uthappa chose Ravindra Jadeja as the only spinner, ignoring Kuldeep Yadav.

"I will have Jadeja. Once more, greater depth, more runs scored, and runs scored in England during Test cricket. Therefore, he will be number eight, according to me, he said.

His pace lineup included Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, and Jasprit Bumrah. "I see Siraj playing that role," he said. However, Siraj needs to practice greater self-control. "One change would be to bring in Prasidh Krishna and Nitish Kumar Reddy once more to back the quick bowlers," Uthappa stated.

The India XI that Robin Uthappa selected for the England tests is made up of Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Reddy, Rishabh Pant, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsna, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and KL Rahul.

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