The 25-year-old batter takes over from Rohit Sharma, who last led India against Australia in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.
Sharma announced his retirement from Test cricket this month, followed by batting great Virat Kohli doing the same.
Jasprit Bumrah had led India during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy - in the first Test in Perth and again in the final Test in Sydney, where Sharma dropped himself.Â
However, the pacer wasn't chosen for the job considering his fitness issues and workload management to monitor his availability through the English summer.
Gill made his Test debut against Australia in December 2020 and has featured in 32 matches since, scoring 1893 runs at an average of 35.05.
He currently leads Gujarat Titans atop the Indian Premier League.
At 25 years and 258 days, Gill is the fifth-youngest cricketer to become India's Test captain.
Keeper-batter Rishabh Pant has been named vice-captain for India's tour of England.
INDIA TEST SQUAD: Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (vice captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Druv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna , Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav
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