• Source:JND
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IND vs ENG Tests: India captain Shubman Gill has thrown his weight behind Gautam Gambhir following his heated altercation with pitch curator Lee Fortis, firmly declaring that the Indian coach is well within his rights to check the track.

Tensions flared at India's training session on Tuesday, as Fortis reportedly asked the Indian coaching staff to hold a 2.5-meter distance from the main pitch square, despite them wearing joggers or rubber-spiked shoes, prompting frustration from the Indian camp.

As per the PTI, Gambhir was heard saying, "You don't tell any of us what we need to do… you have no right to tell us. You are just a groundsman, nothing beyond.”

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When Gill was asked about the tiff on the eve of the final Test, the skipper replied, "What happened yesterday was unnecessary."

"As far as I remember, there's no such instruction (on staying 2.5 metres behind). As long as you're wearing rubber spikes or you're barefoot, I think you're allowed to look at the wicket closely. I don't know exactly what happened yesterday in terms of why their curator stopped them, but we’ve played four matches there before and no one has ever stopped us. We've all played a lot of cricket and have looked at wickets many times—whether it's the coach or the captain—so I don't know what all that fuss was about,” said Gill in the pre-match press conference.

Incidentally, on the day, leading English players like batting mainstay Joe Root and stand-in skipper Ollie Pope were found standing on the match pitch doing shadow batting.

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Gill explained the conflict as extreme, emphasising that scanning the wicket is a real part of a captain and coach's job.

“What happened yesterday, I thought is just absolutely unnecessary. If a pitch curator is going to come and ask us to not look at the wicket and look at the wicket from 3 m from behind, that's not something, that has happened to us before. It's not the first time that we were having a look at the wicket. Like I said, a coach and the captain has every right to be able to go close quarters and have a look at the wicket. And I didn't think that there was anything wrong with that,” he added.