Shubman Gill accuses England of breaching ‘spirit’ of cricket with delaying tactics in India clash

India captain Shubman Gill has accused England of breaching the “spirit” of cricket with their supposed delaying tactics in the third Test at Lord’s.

England openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett ensured they only had to face a solitary over at the end of the third day, when Gill told the Kent batter to “grow some f***ing balls” in an outburst in the middle.

And Gill, the leading run-scorer in the series, accused them of wasting a minute-and-a-half by getting to the middle late. He also revealed there was a build-up to his confrontation with Crawley.

He said: “The English batsmen on that day had seven minutes of play left, they were 90 seconds late to come to the crease – not 10, not 20, 90 seconds late. Yes, most of the teams use this; even if we were in this position, we would have liked to play less overs, but there's a manner to do it.

“If you get hit on your body, the physios are allowed to come on, and that is something that is fair. But to be able to come 90 seconds late to the crease is not something that comes in the spirit of the game.

“Leading up to that event, a lot of things that we thought should not have happened had happened. I wouldn’t say it’s something I’m very proud of, but there was a lead-up and build-up to that; it didn’t just come out of nowhere.

“We had no intention of doing that whatsoever, but you're playing a game, you’re playing to win, and there are a lot of emotions. When you see there are things happening that should not happen, sometimes emotions come out of nowhere.”

England were fined 10 per cent of their match fee and docked two ICC World Championship points because of their slow over rate at Lord’s. But England emerged victorious after a thrilling conclusion to that Test on 14 July, taking a 2-1 lead in the series.

The hosts won the first match at Headingley, before India hit back at Edgbaston. The third Test then played out at Lord’s, while the fourth is scheduled for 23 to 27 July at Old Trafford.