England evokes the ‘spirit of the game’ whenever a player of theirs is on the wrong side. Be it Ravichandran Ashwin running out Jos Buttler at the non-striker’s end or Alex Carey catching Jonny Bairstow off-guard and running him out at the striker’s end. The creators of the sport are the biggest preachers of the ‘spirit of cricket.’
But they have a problem following it themselves. Whether it be Stuart Broad not walking after getting caught in Ashes 2013 or Ben Stokes taking runs off a deflected throw off his bat in the 2019 World Cup Final. India’s Test captain Shubman Gill thinks Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett’s actions on the third day’s play in the Lord’s Test were very much against the spirit of cricket.
Gill reacts to the fight with Crawley & Duckett
With about 7 minutes of play left, England’s openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett deliberately walked late into the middle. Then Crawley started wasting time by stopping Jasprit Bumrah in his run-up, claiming something behind the bowler’s arm was bothering him.
This was a tactic to ensure India didn’t bowl more than 1 over. He also called the physio after Bumrah struck him on his hand. The Indian captain wasn’t amused by this and started abusing the openers. Gill even signalled an ‘X’ sign, virtually telling that Crawley didn’t need the physio’s help for a ‘fake injury.’
Gill has now talked about why he was so riled up that evening. “Let me just clear the air once and for all. The English batsmen on that day had 7 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 (tactic). Even if we were in a position, we would have also liked to play fewer overs,” Gill told reporters in Manchester.
The 26-year-old says that calling a physio is fair. But his issue was Crawley and Duckett coming late. They wasted about 20% of the time left to ensure they don’t play more than one over. For Gill, this is definitely against the spirit of cricket.
“But there is a manner to do it. And we felt, yes, if you get hit on your body, the physios are allowed to come on. And that is something that is fair. But to be able to come 90 seconds late on the crease is not something that I would think comes in the spirit of the game,” the Indian captain added.
War of words incoming at Manchester
England captain Ben Stokes says that there will be quite a lot of words exchanged at Manchester. Harry Brook, in particular, was quite chirpy at Lord’s after that incident between Gill and the English openers. Stokes says England won’t start to sledge but will give it back to India if they do.
“I don’t think it’s one of those things where we’re going to necessarily just go out and start at (sledging). I don’t think either team’s really looked to do that. I think there’s always going to be a moment in a Test series where something does heat up. It’s a massive series and there’s a lot of pressure on both teams to perform,” Stokes said on the eve of the fourth Test.
Brook had previously shared that England head coach Brendon McCullum had told them that they had been very nice towards Indian players, and then on day five, the English players were very confrontational. Jofra Archer gave Rishabh Pant a sendoff, and Brydon Carse was looking to pick a fight with Ravindra Jadeja. Stokes suggests that it might happen at Old Trafford as well.
“As I said, it’s not something that we’re going to purposely go out and look to start because then that will take our focus off what we actually need to do out in the middle. But by no means are we going to take a backward step and let any opposition try to be confrontational towards us. And try to give a bit back. I think that goes for most teams, to be honest anyway,” Stokes added.
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