“We call that tamasha” - Ravi Shastri backs Shubman Gill; taunts England for their time-wasting tactics

Former Indian head coach and commentator Ravi Shastri took a dig at the England pace bowling consultant Tim Southee for slamming the Indian Test captain Shubman Gill for double standards after the end of third day’s play of the ongoing Lord’s Test.

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Notably, Gill went hard on Zak Crawley just before stumps on Day 3 as the English opener wasted a lot of time after calling physio and stopping Jasprit Bumrah from his run-up. Interestingly, Gill went on to hurl a few expletives at the opening batter as well.

The whole episode didn’t go down well with Southee, who slammed Gill for his time-wasting tactics earlier on the second day when he was batting and getting massage from the Indian physio.

"It's always exciting to see both sides animated towards the end. I'm not sure what they were complaining about when Shubman Gill was lying down getting a massage in the middle of the day yesterday. It's obviously part of the game when you're near the end of the day. It's an exciting way to finish the day," Southee said at the end of Day 3.

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However, Shastri was the latest to join the party to take a jibe at Southee, stating that he would have done what Gill has done to the English team, adding that a little bit of argy-bargy works if the players aren’t crossing the line.

"If I were wearing the Indian hat, I would have done all that. We call that tamasha. All that is allowed and you want all that. You can't just have 'Good morning...good evening' and go home. A little bit of argy-bargy is okay as long as you don't cross the line," Shastri said on Sky Sports Cricket.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan also had his opinion, stating that India shouldn’t complain a lot as Gill was also getting treatment for his hamstring strain on the second day of the game.

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“It's as good a piece of time-wasting (Crawley’s) as I've ever seen. “India can't complain because yesterday (Day 2) Gill was down with a hamstring strain,” Vaughan told BBC's Test Match Special.

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