Legendary Australia cricketer Matthew Hayden shared his views over Gautam Gambhir's heated verbal exchange with Oval pitch curator Lee Fortis and remarked that such type of cases are 'typical' in England. This comes after Gambhir was recently involved in an argument with the pitch curator at Kennington Oval ahead of the fifth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
It all began after Fortis approached the Indian team during their optional practice session and questioned why Gambhir was inspecting the pitch from close. What followed was an argument between the two where the India head coach was even seen pointing his finger at Fortis and repeatedly saying that he was 'kjust a groundsman and nothing more'. India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak soon intervened between the two and had a chat with Fortis. However, this didn't stop Gambhir from becoming even more agitated and he was seen telling Kotak to not get into a discussion with the curator.
Hayden feels that though Gambhir could have used better language, but further stated that the Indian team was just trying to train ahead of the all-important fifth Test and did nothing wrong.
“This is a typical case in England. It is a bit of a flex, here we are, final Test match, this is my venue, and they are going to try and make it difficult on Gautam Gambhir. But I think he’s got every right to tone it down. He could have used better language. But the reality is, his team is trying to train ahead of the most important Test match," Hayden said on ‘All Over Bar The Cricket’ podcast.
India won the Oval Test by 6 runs
Meanwhile, the Indian team eventually went on to record a thrilling 6-run victory over England in the Oval Test. Mohammed Siraj was the hero for the side as he finished with figures of 5/103 and played a major role in bundling out the Three Lions for 367 while they were in a run-chase of 374. This memorable win saw the Men in Blue equalize the five-match series at 2-2 as the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy was shared by the two teams.
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Additionally, this win moved India up to the third place on the World Test Championship (WTC) points table, pipping England down to fourth. Shubman Gill & Co's next Test assignment will be a two-match series against West Indies at home which is set to commence from October 2.