{"id":33407,"date":"2025-07-30T21:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T21:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33407\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T21:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T21:40:09","slug":"gambhir-clash-with-groundsman-shubman-gill-comments-press-conference-fifth-test-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33407\/","title":{"rendered":"Gambhir clash with groundsman, Shubman Gill comments, press conference, fifth Test controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

India captain Shubman Gill said the head groundsman at the Oval had sparked an \u201cunnecessary\u201d row with coach Gautam Gambhir following the latest flashpoint in a fractious series against England.<\/p>\n

Gambhir shared terse words on Tuesday with Lee Fortis at the Oval<\/a>, the London venue for the fifth Test.<\/p>\n

India trail 2-1 in the series ahead of the deciding match, which starts on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\ufeffWatch England vs India Test Series LIVE & EXCLUSIVE on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

Former India batsman Gambhir was caught on camera wagging his finger as Fortis towered over him, repeatedly stating: \u201cYou can\u2019t tell us what to do.\u201d Gambhir was also heard adding: \u201cYou\u2019re just the groundsman, nothing beyond.\u201d <\/p>\n

Surrey groundsman Fortis is understood to have been keeping a protective eye on the playing area during India\u2019s practice session, with plenty of cricket still to be played on it this season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But India, who will be without star quick Jasprit Bumrah for the series finale<\/a>, have insisted they simply wanted to have a look at the pitch and had done nothing to spark any kind of reaction from Fortis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened yesterday, I thought, is just absolutely unnecessary. I mean, it\u2019s not the first time that we were having a look at the wicket,\u201d Gill said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The skipper, who has scored 722 runs in the four Tests so far, added: \u201cAs a captain, I don\u2019t know what the fuss was all about.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kotak & Curator adddress Gambhir blow-up | 04:38<\/p>\n

The series has become increasingly heated, with India refusing to shake hands on a draw early in the fourth Test in Manchester to allow Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja to reach centuries, a decision that angered England.<\/p>\n

Gill, whose opposite number Ben Stokes has been ruled out of the final Test with a shoulder injury<\/a>, previously accused England of ignoring the \u201cspirit of cricket\u201d with time-wasting tactics in the third Test at Lord\u2019s, where India fast bowler Mohammed Siraj was fined for the aggressive send-off he gave to Ben Duckett.<\/p>\n

But he said the incidents were not connected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I have already explained what happened at Lord\u2019s and about even the incident that happened on the last day in the previous Test,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the teams have been very competitive. And sometimes when you are competitive, you know, in the heat of the moment, you do or say things that you might not do (otherwise).<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think once the match is over, there is mutual respect between both the teams.\u201d <\/p>\n

Despite India\u2019s superb rearguard action to earn a draw in Manchester, Gambhir remains under pressure.<\/p>\n

Since he took over as head coach, India have won just two and lost eight out of 12 Tests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"India captain Shubman Gill said the head groundsman at the Oval had sparked an \u201cunnecessary\u201d row with coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,20341,30798,17057,740,1208,24160,2057,17071,10537,2105,30796,5330,28506,28824,30792,28504,2022,2132,3583,22297,668,17059,3495,30795,85,30793,30794,30797,3586],"class_list":["post-33407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-duckett","tag-ben-whitley","tag-city-of-manchester","tag-cricket","tag-england","tag-england-v","tag-europe","tag-gareth-copley","tag-gautam-gambhir","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-ground-staff-member","tag-head-coach","tag-head-groundsman","tag-indian-cricket-coach","tag-indian-skipper","tag-lee-fortis","tag-london","tag-mohammed-siraj","tag-northern-europe","tag-practice-session","tag-press-conference","tag-series-finale","tag-shoulder-injury","tag-sitanshu-kotak","tag-sports","tag-sprays-english-groundsmancricket","tag-superb-rearguard-action","tag-surrey-groundsman","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}