After home opposite openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley left late on the third evening of the third Test at Lord’s, India captain Shubman Gill blasted England for not playing with the “spirit of the game.”
Shubman Gill claims that the England openers were 90 seconds late, with only seven minutes left before the stumps were drawn. India was limited to bowling one over as a result, and hostilities between the two sides increased.
“The English batsmen on that day had seven minutes of play left. They were 90 seconds late to come to the crease. Not 10, not 20, but 90 seconds late. Yes, most of the teams use this (tactics). If we were in the same position, we would have also liked to play fewer overs, but there is a manner to do it,” Gill said on the eve of the fourth Test.
“We felt, yes, if you get hit on your body, the physios are allowed to come on. That is fair. But to come 90 seconds late to the crease is not something that is in the spirit of the game. And just leading up to that event, a lot of things that we thought should not have happened, had happened,” Gill said.
As Crawley slowed things down, Gill got into an animated conversation. “It was not something that I am very proud of. But there was a build-up to that. We had no intention of doing that whatsoever. But you are playing a game, you are playing to win, and a lot of emotions are involved. And when you see things that should not happen happening, sometimes the emotions come out of nowhere,” Gill added.
