Ravi Shastri sheds light on England openers’ delay tactics late on Day 3 of ENG vs IND 2025 3rd Test

Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri backed the friction between Indian players and England openers late on the third day’s play in the third Test at Lord’s. After the tourists matched England’s score of 387 in the first innings, they had enough time to bowl two overs.

However, Zak Crawley adopted delay tactics, which didn’t impress Indian captain Shubman Gill. Crawley moved away when Bumrah was in his run-up and also called the physio when he was hit on the bottom hand.

There was a heated argument between Gill and Ben Duckett, whereas KL Rahul also had a few words to say in between.

Shastri said both teams should be aggressive and he didn’t mind the late drama in the last five minutes of the day.

“If I’m wearing the Indian hat, I would have done all that. We call it Tamasha. All that is allowed on the field of play. You want all that, you can’t just have ‘good morning’, ‘good evening’, and then go home. Little bit of argy-bargy is okay,” Shastri said on Sky Sports ahead of Day 4 at Lord’s.

On the other hand, KL Rahul said they wanted to bowl two overs in the last six minutes and they were left a bit frustrated by England’s time-wasting tactics.

“Yeah, I mean, I have seen him (Shubman Gill) fired up, but obviously, we wanted to bowl 2 overs. There were 6 minutes left. Obviously, 2 overs is a no-brainer that any team will bowl,” KL Rahul said during the press conference after the day’s play (via India Today).

“But, yeah, it’s a bit of theatrics at the end. And, yeah, we were all pumped up either way because we know how difficult it is for a batter to come into bat for 2 overs when you’ve been in the field all day. We’re hoping we could get a wicket there and a wicket at the end of the day’s play would have been perfect for us,” he added.

India needs 193 runs to win the third Test, whereas England need nine wickets.