Manchester:On Tuesday, Captain Shubman Gill criticized the England team for not following the spirit of the game, as openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett arrived to bat late on the fourth evening. “Many people have been discussing this. Let me just put things straight once and for all. The English batsmen had seven minutes of play remaining that day. They were 90 seconds late in reaching the crease. Not 10, not 20, but 90 seconds late,” Gill stated.
“Most teams employ these delaying tactics. Even if we were in that situation, we would have preferred to play fewer overs, but there’s a proper way to do it. We believe that if a player is hit on the body, the physios are permitted to come onto the field. That’s fair. However, arriving 90 seconds late to the crease isn’t something I’d consider part of the game’s spirit,” Gill stated. Things turned tense when Gill used expletives after Crawley continued to move away during Jasprit Bumrah’s run-up. The entire Indian team then aggressively targeted the openers.
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Gill, nevertheless, admitted he wasn’t particularly proud of how everything unfolded. He stated that his emotions took over because the England batsmen were delaying play. “Before that incident, several things occurred that we believed shouldn’t have happened. I wouldn’t say it’s something I’m very proud of, but there was a buildup to it. It didn’t happen without reason. We had no intention of doing that at all,” Gill explained as an excuse.
“You’re engaged in a game. You’re striving to win, and there are numerous emotions at play. There are occurrences that shouldn’t take place. However, occasionally these emotions surface unexpectedly,” he added.
The English team has stated that their aggressive actions on the field during the final day were merely a response to India’s outburst targeting their openers. “It definitely began that night when Zak and Ben had to leave the field. We had the benefit of bowling last in the Test match to secure victory. We gave it our all, not just with our abilities, but also with our energy on the field,” said England captain Ben Stokes while speaking to the media ahead of Gill on Tuesday.
“I suppose it was a great moment for the team when discussing something like that and everyone supports it,” he added.
Stokes has stated that his team will not seek to provoke the opposing side in the rest of the series.
“We’re (not) going to intentionally go out and try to provoke (the opponent) because that would take our attention away from what we really need to focus on during the game. However, we certainly won’t back down or allow any team to be confrontational towards us. This applies to most teams. But the series has been enjoyable to play in. It has been exciting to watch,” Stokes said.
It will be intriguing to observe England’s reaction following Shubman Gill’s claim.
