'Was Not In The Spirit Of The Game': Shubman Gill Blasts England For 'Time Wasting Tactics' During Lord's Test
With the series tied at 1-1 ahead of the Lord's Test last week, the closely fought third Test between England and India witnessed plenty of drama on the field. This included an animated flare-up between India skipper Shubman and England openers towards the end of the third day of the Test.
After managing to equal England's first innings total of 387, India wanted to squeeze in two overs in the remaining six minutes of play. However, that wasn't possible as the English openers took their time to get ready, and the India captain got involved in a heated discussion with Zak Crawley and then Ben Duckett.
Addressing the pre-match press conference, India skipper cleared the air on the incident between him and England openers.
"Let me clear the air. We had seven minutes of play left, the English batters were 90 seconds late to bat. Not 10,20 but 90. Yes, we would have also liked to bat less in the same situation but there is a manner to do it. I feel what happened was not in the spirit of the game," said Gill.
"It's not something that I am proud of, we had no intention of doing that but there was a build-up to it," he added.
The 25-year-old Gill also confirmed that Rishabh Pant will be keeping the wickets in the 4th Test, after an injury saw Dhruv Jurel replace the left-handed batter in the field at Lords.
With India now trailing 1-2, many are wondering whether Karun Nair's fairytale has come to an end. In what has been his first series since 2017, the right-hand batter has only amassed 131 runs across six innings with a high score of 40.
With both Sai Sudharsan and Abhimanyu Easwaran itching to go, Gill confirmed he is hopeful that Nair will turn around his form and help the team.
"We have had conversations, we think Karun is batting well. He did not play at his number in the first game, It is difficult to make a comeback in a series like this. It is about getting that click, you score a 50 and then can go on to make a big score. We are hopeful he will turn it around," said Gill.
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