Former England batsman and batting coach Mark Ramprakash believes Zak Crawley ‘pushed things too far’ with regards to the delaying the time towards the end of third day’s play at Lord’s. During the third Test, late on Day Three evening with the clock ticking down, England openers Crawley and Ben Duckett were subject to verbal volleys from the Indian players. Crawley, in particular, had a heated exchange with India captain Shubman Gill.
At one point in the only over sent down in that evening during England’s second innings, Crawley pulled out when Jasprit Bumrah was in the middle of the run-up. And later on in the same over sought medical attention after the red cherry hit his gloves, which was greeted by Indian players mockingly applauding his theatrics before Gill went up to him and had a heated exchange which saw both players wagging their fingers.
Writing in the Guardian, Ramprakash while acknowledging that batsmen from around the world end indulge in ways to see the clock ticking, what England did was poor. He said throughout the game the umpires and match referee did nothing to improve the over-rates with England being fined later on. “Batters at the end of a long day are always prone to pulling away or tying up a shoelace but this was particularly poor and it really exposed the umpires, who throughout the match seemed most intent on keeping quiet and not getting involved. On the Saturday, I watched England bowl for an hour, by the end of which they were four overs behind the rate, at which point they had the most leisurely drinks break. It seemed to take for ever as the players milled around, had a chat, sat down for a bit. There was no urgency at all and the umpires just let it carry on,” Ramprakash wrote.
With regards to Crawley, Ramprakash felt the incident is what led to the fiery exchange between the players.“Many people would say Crawley was just being professional, doing whatever it took to help his side, and if the umpires weren’t bothered then carry on. But I thought he pushed things too far and what can happen then, and did happen, is the opposition taking umbrage and discipline started breaking down. Shubman Gill, the India captain, got quite animated and to be honest I didn’t know he had that in him. Importantly he was backed up by the rest of his players – it is in moments such as this that you see how together a team are. While I was not a fan of what happened, Gill saw his team were right there with him and showed real togetherness,” Ramprakash wrote in his column.
