The Indian players had a great time during their headshot session ahead of the five-match Test series against England, which gets underway on Friday, June 20, at Headingley, Leeds. This series marks the start of the 2025-27 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle for both sides.

On Tuesday, June 17, the Indian cricket team’s official Instagram account posted a video of the behind-the-scenes moments from the headshot shoot, showing the players in high spirits and sharing plenty of smiles.

Watch the video here:

Meanwhile, this series will be India’s first red-ball assignment without former captains Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who retired from Test cricket last month. Young batter Shubman Gill has been entrusted with the captaincy, with Rishabh Pant named his deputy.

Here’s India’s squad for the five-match Test series against England: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh.

“I think India are favorites to win” – Former England spinner makes bold prediction for ENG-IND 2025 Test series

Former spinner Monty Panesar has backed the Indian team to win the upcoming five-match Test series against England. Speaking to ANI, the 43-year-old said:

“Well, I think India has an advantage because they have players who have played County Cricket. I think India are favorites to win and I think they will probably win 2-0. But the key is going to be how they take on the seaming conditions. But also, there is gonna be a lot of hard work. If there are green pitches, I think England are favorites, but if there are flat pitches, I think India has got a chance of winning.”

India’s last Test series victory on English soil came in 2007 when they won the three-match series 1-0 under Rahul Dravid‘s leadership.