London [England], August 2 (ANI): Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting wasn’t impressed with Yashasvi Jaiswal’s ‘time wasting’ antics towards the final moments of the opening session of the third day of the fifth Test between India and England.
India captain Shubman Gill played a sublime drive to find the boundary rope, and then pushed the ball to sprint for a double. Moments after bustling for a couple of runs, Yashasvi Jaiswal started hobbling at the non-striker’s end while pointing at his hamstring.
The slight delay caused by Jaiswal ran the clock down and ensured that it was the final over before lunch. As he returned towards the dressing room, seemingly walking fine, the England players retorted as emotions boiled over.
Words were exchanged, and fingers wagged with Ben Duckett at the centre of the verbal jabs. Gill calmed Jaiswal before the duo returned to the dressing room. Ponting expressed his frustration with Jaiswal and invoked the example of the events that unfolded at Lord’s.
“I didn’t like what I saw there with wasting time in that last over. Especially at the back of what happened at Lord’s when India complained about what the English batters did,” Ponting said as quoted from Sky Sports.
Former England fast-bowling mainstay Stuart Broad shared a different view from Ponting. He expressed his love for the shenanigans between the India and England players, saying, “All the drama that has enthralled us all series, the little dramas that make you smile.”
This wasn’t the first instance of India and England players engaging in a heated verbal altercation in the gruelling five-match series. During the third Test at the ‘Home of Cricket’, Lord’s, temperaments flared, tension simmered, and emotions ran high in the final over of Day 3.
India felt England opener Zak Crawley had resorted to time-wasting theatrics after moving out of the way on the third delivery of Jasprit Bumrah’s opening over. Gill expressed his discontent and yelled at Crawley from the slip cordon. On the fifth delivery, Crawley sustained a blow on the glove.
He quickly removed the glove and asked the physio to have a look at it, which caused pandemonium on the field. The Indian players swarmed the English openers as Gill and Crawley engaged in a fiery verbal exchange while pointing fingers at each other. During the exchange, a couple of expletives were thrown as well.
The drama continued on the final day of the fourth Test in Manchester when the draw was looming large. England captain Ben Stokes went to Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar to offer his hand to pull the curtains down on the Test.
Jadeja and Sundar refused, considering they were on the cusp of reaching their hard-fought centuries. A statement from Stokes was caught on the stump mic as he said, “Jaddu, do you want to get a Test 100 against Brook & Duckett?” Jadeja responded to the English skipper’s comment and said, “What do you want me to do, just walk off?” Zak Crawley, who stood close to the crease, chipped in, saying: “You can, just shake your hand.”
Jadeja and Sundar eventually blazed past the three-digit mark and eventually shook hands to settle the Test. England’s actions drew widespread criticism from fans and former cricketers. (ANI)
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