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1 day ago
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India head coach Gautam Gambhir during a nets session at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, England, Monday, July 21, 2025. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)
Gautam Gambhir and the Chief Curator at the Oval ground, Lee Fortis, were seen having a heated argument on Tuesday. Both parties have made their cases of what has unfolded. Former Indian cricketer R Ashwin, though, questioned what the curator was doing and recalled the past anecdotes when India had such fiery exchanges when they were on tours, and as a result of those incidents, the morale was boosted and they got the best out of the side.
“I can draw a parallel with Sydney. When we drew the Test in Sydney, there was an uncertainty because we were back in the bubble and the Gabba Test was under scrutiny. (Similarly) England were comfortably ahead in the series until that last Test. Till the last day, we thought the Test series was sealed. But the way that game ended, even if it was a draw, and the conversations it triggered and the press conference… it was fiery,” Ashwin revealed on his YouTube channel.
“When adversity is against the Indian team, somebody will rise up. When we are pushed against the wall, the Indian team becomes a different kettle of fish. It becomes a different beast. That particular thing going into the Test is a serious advantage for India. It may mean nothing if England play good cricket and India don’t end up on the right side, but somehow I feel this is not the way it has to be triggered,” Ashwin added.
Earlier, Gambhir’s angry exchange with Fortis and his “you don’t tell us what we need to do” comment that was caught on camera and went viral. “When we went to see the pitch, we were asked by someone to keep a 2.5-metre distance. This was surprising. The Test would be in a few days and we were wearing joggers. So it felt a bit odd. We all have been on the ground enough, we have played so much cricket. Curators are possessive about the ground and the square but they need to understand that they are speaking to highly skilled and intelligent people.” Indian batting coach Sitanshu Kotak explained in the Press Conference on the brawl.
This has not been an isolated incident, but there have been a few heated exchanges between both sides in the series. “I won’t go into whether Gambhir was right about asking for a substitute or how Stokes immediately shut it down… after all of this comes the video of the fight. And I am thinking, ‘Boss, what are you doing? This isn’t how you want to play with this Indian team’,” Ashwin observed.
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