Shubman Gill lashes out at England for time-wasting tactics on Day 3 of Lord’s Test

Indian captain Shubman Gill has criticized England’s openers for their time-wasting tactics ahead of the fourth Test match. On the third day’s play at Lord’s, Gill revealed that England openers – Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett – were 90 seconds late to the crease.

With seven minutes left for the end of day’s play, India wanted to bowl two overs but Crawley backed away when Bumrah was able to start his run-up. Crawley then called the physio after he was hit on the bottom hand and then Gill exchanged some heated words with the lanky batter and Ben Duckett.

Gill said in the pre-match press conference, “Lot of people have been talking about it. So, let me just clear the air once and for all. The English batsmen on that day, they had seven minutes of play left. They were 90 seconds late to come to the crease. Not 10, not 20, 90 seconds.”

The Indian batter said England’s time-wasting tactics were not in the spirit of the game.

Gill added, “Even if we were in that position, we would have liked to play lesser overs, but there’s a manner to do it and we felt… Yes, if you get hit on your body, the physios are allowed to come on. That is fair, but to come 90 seconds late on the crease is not something that comes in the spirit of the game.”

Gill admitted there was a lot of buildup before he lost his cool and thus the emotions were palpable.

“Just leading up to that event, lot of things that we thought should not have happened had happened. It would not say it’s something that I am very proud of, but there was a lead-up and build-up to that. It just didn’t come out of nowhere, and we had no intention of doing that whatsoever, but you are playing a game to win, and there are a lot of emotions involved.

“When you see there are things happening that should not happen, sometimes the emotions come out of nowhere,” Gill concluded.

The fourth Test match between England and India will be played at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, from July 23 onwards.