Gautam Gambhir hits out at England after no-handshake drama at Machester: 'Would they have walked off?'
While India could not practically win the Test match, the duo were expected to continue their partnership to secure a draw for their side. Unfortunately, both Rahul and Gill got out in the first session of play on Day 4 and England looked favourites to win the Test match once again.
However, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar stuck an over 200 run partnership from there on and batted for 2 sessions to make sure only a draw was a probable result in the game. Realising this, English skipper Ben Stokes didn't want to give any more pressure to his bowlers and asked the Indian batters to shake hands to end the match in a draw ahead of the schedule.
As Jadeja was batting on 89 and Washington Sundar on 80, the Indian batters refused the handshake and wanted some kind of reward in the form of centuries after a hard grind earlier in the day. The English team, however, were not pleased as English skipper Stokes and his teammates immediately started to convince the Indian players to change their mind with Stokes even going on to suggest to Jadeja if he wanted to get a hundred against the bowling of Harry Brooks.
Speaking in a post-match press conference, Gambhir said, 'If someone is batting on 90, and the other is batting on 85, don't they deserve a hundred?'
'Would they have walked off? If someone from England would've been batting on 90 or 85, and had the opportunity to score their first Test hundred, wouldn't you allow them to do it?' he added
'See, it's up to them. If they want to play that way, it's up to them. I think both of those guys deserved a hundred, and they got it,' the Indian coach further stated
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