Our Bureau
London
There was a lot of chatter around the on-field verbal confrontation between the Indian and English players at the end of Day 3 of the Lord’s Test. The Indian Captain, Shubman Gill, in a press conference ahead of the 4th Test in Manchester, spoke in length about the whole incident and slammed the opposition for not maintaining the Spirit of the Game.
Gill acknowledged the elephant in the room and talked about the incident where he confronted the English openers Zack Crawley and Ben Duckett for wasting time. He emphasized that they were 90 seconds late to the crease and he could understand the delaying tactics but what the Englishmen were doing was not in the spirit of the game according to the Indian captain.
“Yes, a lot of people have been talking about it, so let me just clear the air, for once and for all, the English batsmen on that day, they had seven minutes of play left, they were 90 seconds late to come to the crease, not 10, not 20, 90 seconds late,” said a combative Gill.
“Yes, most of the teams they use this (delaying tactic), even if we were in a position, we would have also liked to play lesser overs, but there is a manner to do it, and we felt, yes if you get hit on your body, the physios are allowed to come on, and that is something that is fair. But to be able to come 90 seconds late on the crease, is not something that I would think, comes in the way of spirit of the game,” he added
The Indian team are currently trailing in the series 1-2 and will be looking to bounce back in the 4th Test at the fabled Old Trafford stadium. India has made three changes to their squad following Nitish Reddy’s departure and Akash Deep’s injury. They have added debutant Anshul Kamboj and Shardul Thakur in the playing 11 and replaced Karun Nair with Sai Sudarshan.
