Follow UsThe fight between England openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett and Indian skipper Shubman Gill became the highlight of Day 3 of the Lord’s Test as the English openers riled up the Indian captain after they played theatrics for not allowing India to bowl the second over at the end of the Day.
This led to former Indian cricketer and commentator, Sunil Gavaskar, concluding that the reason for animosity between the players of the two teams is that very few English players play in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
“There is a reason why this happened. That’s because not a lot of England players are competing in the IPL,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying on air by the Indian Express.
Reasoning why he reached such a conclusion, Gavaskar gave the example of India-Australia relationships in cricket pre and post IPL.
“From this England team, Joe Root did not play, Ben Stokes did not play. Most of these English players don’t play in the Indian Premier League. What has happened with other teams is that a lot of their players are in the IPL. They have mixed with the Indian players, travelled with them.”
“On the other hand, we don’t see this happening between the Indian and Australian players. This is what I keep saying, before the IPL, there was a lot of animosity, bordering on being brutal, between some players. That intensity is still there, like Archer bowling to Yashasvi. There is a lot of confrontation between India and England players because they don’t play in the IPL,” he added.