India captain Shubman Gill has reacted to the spat between head coach Gautam Gambhir and the pitch curator of The Oval. Gambhir was seen having a heated argument with Lee Fortis after the latter objected to the inspection of the pitch.

Indian batting coach Sitanshu Kotak accused Fortis of yelling at the members of the support staff, which made Gambhir angry.

Gill said that there are no such instructions that the visitors have to stay 2.5 metres away from the wicket. He mentioned that the members of the teams can go near the pitch if they are barefoot or wearing rubber spikes.

“There are no such instructions to stay 2.5 metres away from the wicket. As long as you are wearing rubber spikes or are barefoot, you can look at the wicket. I don’t know what happened yesterday and why the curator stopped the support staff. We have played four matches in the series, and no one has ever stopped us. We have played a lot of cricket, and it is routine exercise to look at the wickets. I don’t know the reason behind all the fuss,” he said.

Gill called the incident unnecessary, saying the captain and coach have every right to look at the track.

“It was unnecessary. If a pitch curator is going to tell us not to look at the wicket from a close angle and maintain a distance of 3 metres, that’s not right. It hasn’t happened with us before. It is not for the first time that we have looked at the pitch. We didn’t do anything wrong,” he added.

Meanwhile, England captain Ben Stokes has been ruled out of the fifth and final Test, set to start from July 31.