India captain Shubman Gill hit back at The Oval’s head groundsman Lee Fortis after an altercation on the field during practice ahead of their fifth Test against England.
India head coach Gautam Gambhir clashed with Fortis over India’s use of the square during their training session, after the groundsman was unhappy with Gambhir and Gill for getting up close to the wicket which was being prepared for the match that begins on Thursday.
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“You stop it, you don’t tell us what we need to do,” Gambhir said during the incident. “You don’t tell us what we need to do, OK? You don’t tell any of my squad what we need to do. You have no right to tell us. You are just a groundsman. You stay in your capacity. You are just a groundsman, nothing beyond.”
Fortis was later questioned about the altercation, hinting that tensions simply boiled over with the crucial fifth Test on the horizon.
“I don’t want to say anything,” he told Indian media. “There’s quite a big game coming up, isn’t there. It’s not my job to be happy with him. I don’t know the man, I’ve never met him before today. You saw what he was like this morning. There’s nothing to speak about, there’s nothing to hide here.”
Gautam Gambhir looks on during practice at The Oval (Getty Images)
Speaking at The Oval on Wednesday, Gill said Fortis’s interjection was “absolutely unnecessary”.
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“We have been here [in England] for almost two months and a coach has every right to have a look at the wicket. I don’t understand why we couldn’t look at the pitch closer than three metres. It’s not something that has happened before. We’ve been playing cricket all around the world for many years and it’s never happened. That’s the job of the coach and the captain, so I don’t see why he didn’t allow us to do that.”
England currently lead the series 2-1 going into the final Test match, but they will be without captain Ben Stokes after he withdrew with a shoulder injury.
Stokes refused to be drawn on the latest incident in what has been a series coloured by animosity between the two camps.
“I don’t know what happened,” Stokes said, before his press conference ended abruptly.
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