‘Absolutely unnecessary': Shubman Gill breaks silence on Gautam Gambhir's fight with Oval pitch curator

Indian Express

4 days ago

India captain Shubman Gill said that he fails to understand why the pitch curator at the Oval had a problem with them taking a look at the wicket from close quarters, an incident which eventually led to head coach Gautam Gambhir having a verbal altercation with the latter.
Clips of Gambhir's angry exchange with Lee Fortis went viral on Tuesday and Gill said that India were never given any instructions about how to approach the pitch that were outside of what is general practice. 'As long as I remember there was never any instructions like that,' said Gill when asked on the even of the fifth Test between India and England if they were informed early on by the ground staff at the Oval about needing to stay 2.5 metres away from the playing surface when inspecting the pitch in the days before the match.
'As long as we are wearing rubber spikes or barefooted, you can see the wicket from close quarters. I don't know what happened yesterday, why the curator didn't allow it. We have played four matches (in the ongoing tour of England), no one stopped us from doing that. We have played enough cricket in the past and captains and coaches have looked at the pitches from close so many times. I don't know what the fuss was all about,' he said.
Gill further siad that the coach has every right to take a look at the pitch from close quarters. 'I thought it's just absolutely unnecessary. It's not the first time that we were having a look at the wicket. We have been here for almost two months. A coach has every right to be able to go close quarters and have a look at the wicket. I don't think there is anything wrong with that and I actually don't know why the curator would not allow us to go have a look at the wicket.
'If a pitch curator is going to come and ask us to not look at the wicket, or look at it from 3 meters away, that's not something that has happened to us before. We have been playing cricket for a long time, as long as we are wearing rubber spikes or barefoot, we are allowed to look at the wicket from close quarters, which is the job of the coach and the captain. So I don't know why they didn't allow us to do that,' he said.
In visuals captured by the travelling flock of Indian media, Gambhir can be seen yelling at a burly man, who was later identified as Fortis.
VIDEO | Indian team's head coach Gautam Gambhir was seen having verbal spat with chief curator Lee Fortis at The Oval Cricket Ground in London ahead of the last Test match of the series starting Thursday.
After having drawn the fourth Test at Old Trafford, India have a chance… pic.twitter.com/hfjHOg9uPf
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 29, 2025
Gambhir can be heard yelling 'you don't tell us what we need to do'. Later, India's batting coach Sitanshu Kotak had revealed that the Oval staff had tried to tell Indian team management when they had gone to check out the wicket to stand two and a half metres away. This had sparked the confrontation between India head coach Gambhir and Fortis, where he can be seen telling the India coach that he will raise a complaint with the match referee.
Fortis has been in charge of the pitch at the Oval ion London since 2012, when he was brought on to replace Bill Gordon. Before 2012, Fortis had previously worked as an assistant head groundsman at the Oval before leaving in 2006. He had a stint tending the Honourable Artillery Company ground in the City of London. After taking charge of the Oval ground as Surrey's Head of Ground Staff, Fortis claimed the award for the best multi-day pitches for the third consecutive year at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) 2024 Grounds Manager of the Year Awards last year.