India captain Shubman Gill did not hold back in expressing his dismay at the Surrey chief curator, Lee Fortis, not allowing the Indian team to inspect the Oval pitch from close quarters.
Fortis reportedly instructed the Indian team members to maintain a minimum of 2.5-metre distance from the main pitch, which surprised the coaching staff. Despite them wearing jogger shoes, which have very little chance of causing any harm to the pitch, the Indian coaching staff were not allowed to inspect the pitch. On top of that, India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak said Curtis spoke rudely to one of India’s support staff for keeping a cooling box close to the main area. This irked head coach Gambhir, who then exploded into an argument with Fortis.
Gill said he had never been instructed to stay 2.5 metres away from the main pitch before the match. “As long as I can remember, there has been no such instruction (of staying 2.5 metres away). As long as you’re wearing rubber spikes or are barefoot, you can get a close look at the pitch. I don’t know what happened yesterday. Why did the curator stop us? We have played four matches here, and no curator has given us such instructions. And we have watched and played enough cricket. We have inspected the pitch multiple times, I don’t know what the fuss is all about,” Gill said in the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
When asked whether head coach Gambhir was under pressure and hence reacted in that manner, Gill sided with the former India opener. “Not really. If a pitch curator comes and asks us to look at the wicket from 3 meters away, that is not something that has happened to us before,” he added.
England captain Ben Stokes, who was ruled out of the fifth and final Test at the Oval with a shoulder injury, chose to steer away from the controversy. “Obviously, it’s hard not to see that stuff, but I wasn’t here. I don’t know what’s happened,” he said.
What happened between Gambhir and Surrey curator?
Video footage circulating on social media showed Gambhir confronting Fortis during India’s training session on Tuesday. In the footage, Gambhir, a former India opener with 58 Tests to his name, can be seen gesturing angrily and heard telling Fortis: “You can’t tell us what to do” and “You don’t tell any of us what to do.” He then added, “You’re just the groundsman, nothing beyond,” in remarks that have drawn sharp criticism online.
Surrey’s head groundsman, Fortis, visibly taken aback by the comments, responded by suggesting he might file an official complaint. Gambhir was unmoved, replying: “You can go and report to whoever you want.”
India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, who intervened in the spat, later explained that the confrontation began when Fortis raised his voice at a member of India’s support staff. “He was sitting on the roller, he shouted and told the support staff not to take [the cooler] there,” Kotak said. “It is good to be a little possessive and it is also good to be protective, but not that much.”
Kotak defended Gambhir’s reaction, stating, “Gautam just said do not talk to the support staff like this. At the end of the day it is a cricket pitch. It is not an antique where you can’t touch.”
The incident comes at a tense moment in what has become an increasingly fractious series. England leads the five-match series 2-1, with the final Test beginning Thursday. Tempers had already started to fray during the third Test at Lord’s, where a time-wasting controversy involving England openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett sparked criticism from the Indian camp. The fourth Test ended on a sour note as well, after Indian players Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar pursued personal milestones instead of accepting an early draw handshake offered by England captain Ben Stokes.