England vs India: Shubman Gill breaches ICC clothing regulations on his captaincy debut

Indian Test captain Shubman Gill seems to have violated the clothing and equipment rules on Day 1 of the Headingley, Leeds Test against England. Notably, Gill was seen wearing black socks while batting on the opening day of the first game of the five-match series.

With his historic century, Gill emerged as the fifth Indian to score a century on captaincy debut, joining the elite list of players, namely Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, and Virat Kohli.

As Gill came out to bat on Day 1 post-lunch, Gill is expected to face disciplinary action for breaching the ICC’s clothing regulations. The likely violation could be due to him wearing black socks during his innings on Day 1. 

According to clause 19.45 of the ICC’s Clothing and Equipment Rules, which came into effect in May 2023, players are only permitted to wear socks of colours "white, cream, or light grey". For ODIs/T20Is – white, cream or light grey or the same colour as the base colour of the playing trousers.

However, Gill’s sanction depends on the match referee, who will declare if it was an intentional Level 1 offence. If it was an intentional offence, Gill might be fined 10 to 20 percent of his match fee. On the other hand, if his breach was unintentional, he might avoid a penalty.

Team India would be aiming for its first-ever Test series win since 2007 after drawing the previous Test tour to England in 2021-22 by 2-2.

England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.

India (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.

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