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With the five-match series currently leveled at 1-1, the third Test between England and India, underway at the Lord’s Cricket Ground, has been nothing short of an entertainer. After England won the toss and elected to bat first, they were bundled out at the score of 387, courtesy a fifer from Jasprit Bumrah. In reply, India too posted 387, courtesy a 100 from KL Rahul and 70-plus knocks from Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja.
As England once again took the guards in the middle, they faced only one over, putting two-run lead at the end of Day 3’s play. While that one over was all about drama as players from the two teams were seen going neck-and neck. It is to be noted that tempers flared after Zak Crawley pulled away four times before facing the third ball of the over.
There is lot of confrontation between India and England players as they don’t play in IPL: Gavaskar
Seeing this, Shubman Gill, the Indian captain exchanged a few words with Crawley and then went into a heated argument with Duckett, probably for delaying the over at the end of day’s play. Seeing the theatrics from the final over, former India captain, Sunil Gavaskar, who is also a part of the commentary panel, took a blunt take on the incident.
Gavaskar opined 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," Gavaskar said during his commentary stint. "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,” he continued.
“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," he elaborated.
