&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "India skipper Gill reveals '90 seconds' which led to confrontation with England batters at Lord's")
India Test skipper Shubman Gill, speaking on the Lord's Test sledging incident for the first time, revealed what led to his confrontation with the England openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett. Gill said the English openers were 90 second late to the crease in a bid to avoid playing more than one over with seven minutes left in the day. Gill, however, acknowledged that this is not something 'he's proud of' but questioned if the tactic by England batters fell within the ‘spirit of the game.’
"The English batsmen on that day, they had seven minutes of play left. They were 90 seconds late to come to the pitch. Not 10, not 20. Ninety seconds late. Yes, most of the teams, they use this [tactic]. Even if we were in a position, we would've also liked to play lesser overs, but there's 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 spirit of the game," Gill said on the eve on Manchester Test at a press conference.
Why happened on day 3 of IND vs ENG Lord's Test?
England opener Zak Crawley, facing Jasprit Bumrah, backed out of the batting stance twice which didn't go down well with the Indian slip cordon which also included Gill. Crawley was also hit on the wrist by a Bumrah delivery after which he called out the physio immediately. Gill immediately ran to the English batter and exchanged some words but the over proved to be the last of day 3. India eventually bowled out England for 192 on day 4 but failed to the chase the target and lost the most by 22 runs.
