Gill accuses England of not playing in the ‘spirit of the game’

India captain Shubman Gill accused England of not playing in the ‘spirit of the game’ after the home team openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley walked out late on the third evening of the third Test at Lord’s.

According to Gill, with just seven minutes remaining before the stumps were drawn, the England openers were 90 seconds late. As a result, India could only bowl one over and tensions flared between the two teams.

“The English batsmen on that day had seven minutes of play left. They were 90 seconds late to come to the crease. Not 10, not 20, but 90 seconds late. Yes, most of the teams use this (tactics). If we were in the same position, we would have also liked to play lesser overs, but there is a manner to do it,” Gill said on the eve of the fourth Test.

“We felt, yes, if you get hit on your body, the physios are allowed to come on. That is something that is fair. But to come 90 seconds late to the crease is not something that is in the spirit of the game. And just leading up to that event, a lot of things that we thought should not have happened, had happened,” Gill said.

As Crawley slowed things down, Gill got into an animated conversation.“It was not something that I am very proud of. But there was a build-up to that. We had no intention of doing that whatsoever. But you are playing a game, you are playing to win and there are a lot of emotions involved. And when you see things that should not happen happening, sometimes the emotions come out of nowhere,” Gill added.