Former England skipper Joe Root has opened up about the heated confrontation between India skipper Shubman Gill & opener Zak Crawley at the end of the third day's play of the third Test between England vs India at Lord's. While the visitors went on to end the series on a 2-2 draw, the moment between Gill & Crawley spiced things up during the fourth and fifth Tests.
The tensions heightened in Lord's with the series tied at 1-1. Both teams were seen edging past each other in their respective first innings, with scores tied on 387 on the board. With India trying to bowl as many overs as possible before stumps on Day three, Crawley utilized time-wasting techniques to full effect and ensured no more overs were bowled after Jasprit Bumrah, who bowled the last over of the day. While Indian players were simmering with anger over the English opener's tactics, Gill himself took his own sweet time to have a massage for the issues related to cramps on the previous day.
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Root specifically pointed to the Indian skipper's own time-delaying methods and spoke about that at length in a recent interview on the Barmy Army TV YouTube channel.
"It was quite amusing watching all that unfold, especially having seen Shubman getting a massage for ten minutes when he had cramps the day before. There are other things like these that happen during the game that add to the spectacle."
"It's not something you want to see all the time, where days get played out over only 60 overs because there are so many other things happening. But every now and then, something like that is good theater as long as it doesn't ruin the overall experience."
Notably, the Lord's Test was won by the Ben Stokes-led team by 22 runs, as India valiantly fought hard, but just could not close out the game.
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Gill lost his cool, but it creates great drama to the whole thing - Joe Root
Root further stated that the Indian Test skipper lost his temper in the incident with Crawley at the end of the third day's play at Lord's. However, the legendary England batter did not mind the occasional moment if it spiced things up in the contest.
"I guess there is just an element of that in the way they do things. And as an opposition, it's just making sure you have a very good method in combating that, whether that's having a go back at them, like the incident at Lord's with Zak that made that over about eight minutes long. Gill lost his temper, but it created great drama in the whole thing," said Root (via the aforementioned source).
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Unfortunately for the hosts, Gill had the most productive Test series of his career so far, as he amassed a record-shattering 754 runs at an average of over 75, including four centuries. His heroic efforts with the bat, coupled with Mohammed Siraj's phenomenal bowling, helped India draw the series 2-2.
