Shubman Gill, the Indian captain, also offered his bit on the whole pitch inspection, which took place near the square of the Kennington Oval in London on Tuesday, July 29, following the batting coach Sitanshu Kotak. While Kotak was candid and upfront, Gill chose to be a bit straight faced and diplomatic while talking about the incident when India head coach Gautam Gambhir abused and lashed out at the Oval curator Lee Fortis, who told the Indian support staff to inspect the pitch from a distance, two days out from the start of the fifth and the final game.
"If a pitch curator is going to come and ask us to not look at the wicket and look at the wicket from three metres from behind, that's not something that has happened to us before," Gill told the reporters on the eve of the Oval Test. "We've been playing cricket for such a long time and as long as you are under rubber spikes or you're barefoot, you're allowed to look at the wicket from close quarters and that's the job of the coach and the captain.
"So I don't know why the curator didn't let us or didn't allow us to do that," Gill added. There was a long discussion between the curator and Gambhir, Kotak, Gill and India's chief selector Ajit Agarkar on the eve of the Test match as well; however, tempers seemed to be in control during that one.
Ben Stokes, the England captain, was also asked the same question in the presser if they had been advised to be 2.5m away from the pitch, but the all-rounder didn't divulge. Stokes was one of the four members of the England playing XI from the Manchester Test unavailable for the series decider.
While Stokes injured his right shoulder, Liam Dawson, Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse were left out with Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue, Gus Atkinson and Jamie Overton coming in. Gill, however, kept the cards close to his charts regarding his side, but did hint about a debut for Arshdeep Singh.
