Shubman Gill believes England breached ‘spirit of the game’ during third Test

The India captain, Shubman Gill, has strongly criticised some of England’s behaviour during their ongoing Test series, describing it as not “what I would think comes in the spirit of the game”.

On the eve of the fourth Test at Old Trafford Gill was asked if he regretted confronting the England batter Ben Duckett during the last match at Lord’s, a moment that prompted England to decide, as Harry Brook put it on Monday, “to give them something back and not be the nice guys we have been in the last three or four years”. Gill’s intervention came as England’s openers tried – successfully as it turned out – to restrict India to bowling a single over during a seven-minute period at the end of the third day, using delaying tactics that included spotting convenient movement behind the sightscreen, and calling on the physio after being hit by the ball.

“A lot of people have been talking about this so let me clear the air for once and for all,” Gill said. “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, 90 seconds late. Yes, most teams [do] this, in that position we would have also liked to play less overs, but there is a manner to do it. 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 to the crease is not something that I would think comes in the spirit of the game, and just leading up to that event a lot of things that we thought should not have happened, they happened.

“It’s not something I’m very proud of but there was a lead-up and a build-up to that. It didn’t just come out of nowhere. 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 there are things happening that should not happen, sometimes the emotions come out of nowhere.”

Ben Stokes defended his team’s behaviour, insisting that “at not one stage did we go over the line”. He said his side would not seek to play this week in similarly antagonistic style but that they would respond in kind if they sense their opponents doing so. “We’re not going to let any team feel like they can intimidate us in any way,” he said. “We are not going to take a backward step and let any opposition try and be confrontational towards us and not try to give a bit back.”

Stokes is equally disinclined to take a backward step in his ongoing battle with the ICC over their over rates regulations. England have long felt the existing rules are unfair, with the ICC refusing to amend them at a board meeting earlier this year, and their frustration is simmering again after they were fined 10% of their match fee and docked two World Test Championship points at the end of the third Test.

“I can understand it from an external point of view, I really do,” Stokes said. “But there’s a lot that goes on out on the field. You’ve got fast bowlers bending their back consistently. Throughout the course of a game, the time of overs is going to come down. You’ve just got tired bodies. We played for five days [at Lord’s], 15 days of cricket [in this series].

“I honestly think there needs to be a real hard look at how it’s structured. You can’t have the same rules in Asia, where spin bowling is 70% of the overs, and in New Zealand, Australia, England, where it’s going to be 70%, 80% seam, because a spinner’s over takes less time than a seamer’s over. Common sense would say you should look at changing how over rates are timed in different conditions. There are times when the game isn’t on the line and you’ll just throw the ball to a spinner to get your overs [in], but then you’re playing an international game and just trying to get your over rate back. I don’t think people want to come and watch that.

While England named their team on Monday India have not yet reciprocated, as they mull possible responses to Akash Deep, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Arshdeep Singh all being ruled out of the match – and in Reddy’s case, the series – through injury. Their main quandary is whether to give the 24-year-old all-rounder Anshul Kamboj, called into the squad this week, an international debut. “We have seen him enough, the kind of skillset that he brings to the table is exactly what we want in this team and he’s there because we believe he can win us the match,” Gill said. “The belief we have within the squad [is] that any player who comes in the team can win matches for us.”