Gautam Gambhir, Shubman Gill snubbed ICC threat to dock WTC points at Oval: ‘We're playing to win…'

Mint

2 days ago

Team India garnered their slimmest win in a Test match during the last match of the Anderson Trophy at The Oval as the young team defeated the hosts by just 6 runs. While there were a lot of ups and downs along the way in the game, a new report has come to light showing that the team management were also warned about the slow over rate of their team on the last day of the match.
Going into day 5 of the match, India required 4 wickets and had 35 runs left in the bank. With the conditions still supporting the faster bowlers, India didn't discount the possibility of a win, while England would have hoped to win the clash as well.
However, the Indian team had to deal with another problem on the final day as match referee Jeff Crowe sent a message to the Indian camp that they were six overs behind the required rate at the start of play on Day 5, according to a report in Dainik Jagran.
India stood to lose four crucial World Test Championship (WTC) points if they did not correct the bowling rate, making for a difficult decision for coach Gautam Gambhir and skipper Shubman Gill on whether to focus on wickets and winning the match or to correct the bowling rate.
The Indian team management, including Gill, Gambhir, assistant coach Sitanshu Kotak and other staff, reportedly discussed making a tactical switch, with one of the suggestions being to bring in spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar from both ends in order to boost the over rate. However, with Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton settled at the crease, the introduction of spinners could also have spelled trouble for the Indian team as the two English batters could have taken the game away.
Indian coach Gambhir then decided to take a bold call of not caring about the over rate and continuing to focus on getting the remaining wickets.
"I don't care about the over rate,' Gambhir reportedly said.
'If we lose four points, so be it. We are playing to win,' he added.
Gambhir was backed by skipper Gill, who introduced Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna from both ends at the start of play to attack the stumps and win the match.
India's strategy paid off as Siraj took three crucial scalps while Krishna also picked up a wicket to end the proceedings for England and secure a famous win for the visitors.
Despite the warning given by the ICC official, India avoided the penalty due to the result of the match, while England were fined two WTC points owing to the slow over rate.