India captain Shubman Gill accused England of not playing in the ‘spirit of the game’ after its openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley walked out late in the evening of the third day of the Lord’s Test. This comes a day after England’s Harry Brook said one needn’t always be the ‘nice guys.’

According to Gill, with just seven minutes remaining before the stumps were drawn, the England openers were 90 seconds late. As a result, India could only bowl one over, and tensions flared between the two teams.

“Not 10, not 20, but 90 seconds late. Yes, most of the teams use these (tactics). Even if we were in a position, we would have also liked to play fewer overs, but there is a manner to do it,” Gill said on the eve of the fourth Test.

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“We felt, yes, if you get hit on your body, the physios are allowed to come on. That is something that is fair. But to come 90 seconds late on 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, had happened,” he added.

Crawley’s slow approach meant Jasprit Bumrah could bowl only one over, leaving the Indians frustrated. A visibly agitated Gill was caught on the stump mic amid an animated conversation with the openers.

“It was not something that I am very proud of. But there was a build-up to that. It didn’t just come out of nowhere. And 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 the things happening that should not happen, sometimes the emotions come out of nowhere,” Gill stated.