The end of the third day of the 3rd India vs England Test was a spicy one as Shubman Gill launched an expletive-laden attack on England batters Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett at Lord’s. With 10 minutes left at the end of day three’s play, after India and England’s 1st innings scores were level, tempers began to flare up as Crawley pulled away four times before facing the third ball from Jasprit Bumrah. A few choice words were exchanged by India skipper Shubman Gill, who believed England were employing time-wasting tactics. Crawley was then hit on the glove, so he took a moment to check his hand and called for the physio. Gill also had a heated argument with Ben Duckett.
Things began to heat up again as Gill made a sarcastic clap and gestured towards the pavilion, even as Crawley was checked for his injury, before being beaten by a seaming away delivery from Bumrah to end a fascinating day’s play.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said that the reason behind the animosity was because the IPL does not have many England players.
“…England wanting to make it the last over. The Indians thought it was may bit of gamesmanship. Maybe it was,” Sunil Gavaskar said on air after Day 3 ended.
“There is a reason why this happened. That’s because not a lot of England players are competing in the IPL. That’s my thinking. From this England team Joe Root did not play, Ben Stokes did not play. What has happened with other teams is that a lot of their players are in the IPL. They have mixed with the Indian players, travelled with them. They shared changing room. This is what I keep saying, before the IPL, there was lot of animosity, bordering on being brutal, between some players. That intensity is still there, like Archer bowling to Yashasvi. There is lot of confrontation between India and England players because they don’t play in the IPL.”
Brief scores: England 387 and 2/0 in 1 over (Zak Crawley 2 not out) lead India 387 in 119.2 overs (KL Rahul 100, Rishabh Pant 74, Ravindra Jadeja 72; Chris Woakes 3-84, Jofra Archer 2-52) by two run
