Zak Crawley responds to Shubman Gill's poor spirit of the game claim

Openers Crawley and Ben Duckett were faced with a tricky few minutes of batting in the final moments of the third Test at Lord's. The pair seemingly took an age to reach the crease, then Crawley called on the physio after an innocuous-looking blow to the gloves, drawing the ire of Gill and his Indian charges.  

The irate captain approached Crawley for a heated exchange, with Gill calling Crawley's bravery into question.

"The English batters on that day, they had seven minutes of play left," explained Gill later.

"They were 90 seconds late to come to the crease, not 10, not 20, 90 seconds late. Yes, most of the teams, they use this, even if we were in a position, we would have also liked to play lesser overs, but there's a manner to do it.

"And we felt, yes, 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 later on the crease is not, that is not something that I would think comes in the spirit of the game."

Speaking to the press after Day 2 of the fourth Test this week, Crawley defended himself.

"No, it wasn’t intentional," said the 27-year-old.

"I sit in my spot until the umpires go out. I walked out when I saw them go. I wasn’t aware we were 90 seconds late, but fair enough,"

"I've always enjoyed that part of cricket, to be honest, especially when you’re batting. There’s two of you against eleven and they’re desperate to get you out, and they’re chirping you."