England’s legendary batter Joe Root opened up on the controversial incident between Shubman Gill and Zak Crawley that happened at Lord’s during the India vs England 5-match Test series.
Root has taken a dig at the new Indian Test skipper.
India toured England for a five-match Test series this year. Indian batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirement from the format, while Shubman Gill, the youngster, was handed the captaincy of the Indian side for the red-ball series.
Gill dominated in his very first series as the skipper, as he not only scored a record 754 runs in the series but also returned back home as a successful skipper, defending his title with a 2-2 draw. In the same game, a heated exchange was marked between Shubman Gill and Zak Crawley.
Joe Root launches an attack on Shubman Gill for unnecessary drama
The Indian captain, Shubman Gill, was seen infuriated as India came to bowl in the second innings on Day 3 of the Lord’s Test. The game was nearing its ending moments; hence, Zak Crawley implemented his time-consuming strategies to see the England innings off for the day without the loss of a wicket.
Shubman Gill charged towards the English opener, rallied him with abuses, and almost led to a physical altercation. Joe Root, who has now opened up on the issue, pointed out that Shubman Gill himself took time to get a massage for his issues with cramps just the day before.
“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,” said Root on the Barmy Army TV YouTube channel.
“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 theatre as long as it doesn’t ruin the overall experience,” he added.
Gill’s actions tagged as ‘great drama’ by the England great
Despite all the drama, the Lord’s match finally ended in a win for the English side; hence, Joe Root seems much more relaxed about the incident that occurred between Zak Crawley and Shubman Gill. He said that the incident had added much drama to 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 Joe Root.
Shubman Gill did not stop scoring with the bat, as he went on to score another hundred in the next game following the Lord’s Test. His historic 269 at Birmingham would be an innings to remember by an Indian batter on English soil.
Joe Root became the second-highest scorer in Test cricket history during the India vs England series
The England great was the second-highest run-getter in the series as he amassed 537 runs across the 9 innings he played in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. The batter averaged 67.12 and went on to score 3 hundreds in the series. He was also the second-highest century getter after the Indian skipper.
With these runs, Joe Root went past the former Australian great Ricky Ponting in the list of most runs for Test cricket. He now has 13543 runs in red-ball cricket and is only behind the great Sachin Tendulkar. He has also scored 39 centuries in the format for England.