TEST MATCH BREAKFAST: Zak Crawley responds to Shubman Gill's 'spirit of the game' accusations and the debate surrounding injury substitutes

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

Test Match Breakfast takes a look at some of the biggest issues around cricket during England's huge fourth Test against India at Old Trafford.
Ahead of day three of the crunch fourth game of the five-match series, RICHARD GIBSON discusses Zak Crawley's response to Shubman Gill's suggested he had not acted in the 'spirit of the game', injury substitutions in Test cricket and the England all-rounder lighting up the county game.
Right on time
Zak Crawley pleaded innocence in response to a pre-match accusation from India captain Shubman Gill that he had gone against the spirit of the game midway through this series.
Gill blamed the third evening flare-up during the Lord's Test on Crawley and his opening partner Ben Duckett for arriving at the crease 90 seconds late.
It was that particular part of England's delaying tactics that had incensed the Indian team, Gill said, causing them to converge upon Crawley when he called for medical attention, after being struck on the glove by Jasprit Bumrah, as the clock ticked onto the 6.30pm close of play.
'I sit in my spot until the umpires go out. I wasn't aware we were late,' Crawley protested.
Whether it was intentional or not, he also stirred things up by saying: 'I loved that eight-minute passage.'
There were seven minutes of play remaining when England's second innings began, but India were only able to send down six deliveries following the late start to the innings and a couple of further interruptions.
Pants on fire
Injury substitutes should not come into Test cricket for another two years, according to India's Shardul Thakur.
The International Cricket Council have signalled their intention to introduce subs for ailments other than concussion by announcing a trial period for domestic cricket around the world from October.
However, talking about the issue in light of Rishabh Pant batting with a fractured foot on the second morning, Thakur said that changes to Test cricket's playing conditions ought to wait until mid-2027 when the current World Championship ends, rather than be introduced midway through its cycle.
Of Pant limping back to the crease to transform his unbeaten 37 into a half-century, Thakur - who struck 41 himself - said: 'It was always our plan. There were quite a few efforts from our medical team. Yes, he was in a lot of pain, but we have seen him do a lot of amazing things for the team and this was another.'
Pant's latest misfortune, set to keep him sidelined for around six weeks, did throw up an anomaly unlikely ever to be repeated again - Dhruv Jurel keeping in three consecutive innings during a Test series without being named in India's XI.
The last laugh
Lancashire provided a patronising response to spectators making it into ground on time on Thursday, following the chaos at the start of the match.
24 hours after thousands were queuing down the road, waiting to be admitted and missing half of the morning session in some cases, there was a near full house to witness Ben Stokes' fifth five-wicket haul in Tests.
An X post from the club read: 'Thanks to all supporters for arriving early and prepared today. It makes a huge difference!
'We hope you have a great day here with us at Emirates Old Trafford.'
Lancashire responded to anger from fans at delayed entry on day one by claiming nearly 9,000 supporters arriving at the ground 'very late' had caused the logjam at the turnstiles.
On the beers!
It was the 20th anniversary of one of the lesser known events of the 2005 Ashes on Thursday.
Australia's victorious players opted to celebrate seeing off England at Lord's by storming the home dressing room and belting out their team song 'Under the Southern Cross I Stand.'
England's players had long since departed, but the act of drunken bravado left some of the Australians uneasy post singing.
'Looking back now, I wish we hadn't had as many beers as we had before we went down there,' says Australia captain Ricky Ponting.
Those events were kept secret for more than a decade, but came to light in the documentary Forged in Fire, charting international cricket's fiercest rivalry.
England shook Australia in that opening match, fast bowler Steve Harmison famously scarring Ponting's cheek to lay down a marker for the series, and although the tourists won the Battle of St John's Wood, they didn't win the war.
The response of Michael Vaughan, the man who orchestrated the historic 2-1 win, was one of muted satisfaction: 'There's a karma in sport, isn't there?'
England's next star?
Liam Dawson was the Englishman with the most recent match double of a century and 10 wickets until Thursday.
Dawson, 35, managed the feat on this ground for Hampshire last August, and had also completed it against Middlesex in Southampton 14 months prior to that.
But another spin-bowling all-rounder with Ashes ambitions this winter in Rehan Ahmed put his name in a rare club with only the fifth occurrence by an English player this century.
Ahmed, 20, followed his first innings hundred with a career-best six for 51 and then took all four Derbyshire wickets to fall second time around as Division Two leaders Leicestershire closed in on an impressive away victory against their promotion rivals.