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This is new India—a new young captain with a young bunch of players. In the last few months, coming back from the Border-Gavaskar Series, India witnessed sudden retirements of three stalwarts: Ravichandran Ashwin, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli. When the side might look weaker compared to the Ben Stokes-led mighty England, head coach Gautam Gambhir channeled his confidence in his huddle talk speech to the young team. He said, that the team will always have two perspectives. One, this lacks three major heads, and two, they have got their chances to be the heroes. And now, it all on the team to choose which one.

Gambhir started the huddle talk with introductions. Recently, the South Africa-based Adrian Le Roux has joined the team as the strength and conditioning coach of the team after Soham Desai departed. Gambhir recalled his days with Adrian in the Indian team, as Adrian is not new with the circuit. Moreover, he welcomes the newbies of the team, Arshdeep Singh, the maestro with the white ball, and Sai Sudharshan, who has had a tremendous IPL season in 2025.

Gambhir acknowledged the grit of Karun Nair. That bloke made a comeback after 7 long years, despite being the second Indian after Virendra Sehwag to have a triple century in Test cricket. But then came the real talk, where the team's identity mattered. Gambhir was heard saying,

"All I want to say is there are two ways of looking at this group. One is that we are without our three most experienced players, or we’ve got this phenomenal opportunity to do something special."

He added,

"And when I look around this group, the hunger, the passion and the commitment to do something special… If we make sacrifices, if we come out of our comfort zones, if we start fighting, not every day, but every session, every hour and every ball, I think we can have a memorable tour. So make sure we start that today. Start enjoying playing for the country because there’s no bigger honour."

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, the newly appointed Test captain, too had a little talk, pumping up his boys to count every ball, even in the nets. He concluded saying,

“Let’s make each and every net session meaningful, and let’s prepare like that. Let’s put ourselves under a little bit of pressure when we’re going out there. Let’s try to – it’s not about going out there and surviving. Let’s try to find our game, how we’re going to play when we’re put under pressure, be it bowlers or batters. And let’s make the practice match and each and every net very meaningful, and let’s play every ball with purpose."

Notably, India will play a five-match Test series against England, with the first test starting on June 20, at Headingley.