Shubman Gill Fires Back at Oval Curator Amid Gambhir Confrontation: “We’ve Played Enough Cricket, No One…”

Shubman Gill Fires Back at Oval Curator Amid Gambhir Confrontation: India captain Shubman Gill did not turn back even after saying how disappointed he was with Lee Fortis, the chief curator of Surrey to not allow the Indian side to take a closer view of the pitch at the Oval. It is mentioned that Fortis directed the Indian team members to ensure that they are 2.5 metres away in distance with the main pitch, something that shocked the coaching team. The Indian coaching staff were forbidden to check the pitch even though they wore jogger shoes that there is a very minimum possibility that can cause harm to the pitch. Worse still, India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak indicated that Fortis even spoke rudely to one of the support staffs in India because they were keeping a cooling box near to the main arena. This annoyed the head coach Gambhir and as a result the head coach exerted himself into a violent argument with Fortis.

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According to Gill, he had never been told to remain 2.5 metres away the main pitch during a match prior to the match. "As long as I can remember, there has been no such instruction (of staying 2.5 metres away). As long as you're wearing rubber spikes or are barefoot, you can get a close look at the pitch. I don't know what happened yesterday. Why did the curator stop us? We have played four matches here, and no curator has given us such instructions. And we have watched and played enough cricket. We have inspected the pitch multiple times, I don't know what the fuss is all about," Gill said in the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

Does it mean that senior coach Gambhir is under any pressure and therefore he responded like that, as was Gill asked, and the former India opener took the side of his senior coach. "Not really. If a pitch curator comes and asks us to look at the wicket from 3 meters away, that is not something that has happened to us before," he added.

England skipper Ben Stokes, who has been forced to give up the fifth and final Test against India in the Oval due to a shoulder infection, opted to turn a blind eye to the scandal. "Obviously, it's hard not to see that stuff, but I wasn't here. I don't know what's happened," he said.

#WATCH | London, UK | On the heated conversation between Indian Cricket Team Head Coach Gautam Gambhir and Oval Pitch Curator Lee Fortis, Indian Team Captain Shubman Gill says, "I don't know what exactly happened yesterday and why the pitch curator did what he did. We have played… pic.twitter.com/rn01pvHOwQ

— ANI (@ANI) July 30, 2025

What went wrong with Gambhir and the Surrey curator?

Viral video footage on social media revealed Gambhir approaching Fortis during the training session of India, on Tuesday. Gambhir, who is a former India opener having played 58 Test matches, can be seen in the footage gesturing angrily, and telling Fortis: “You can’t tell us what to do” and “You don’t tell any of us what to do.” He then added, “You’re just the groundsman, nothing beyond,” in remarks that have drawn sharp criticism online.

Fortis, the head groundsman at Surrey, visibly shocked by the comments, has retorted, that he would contemplate laying a formal complaint. This did not move Gambhir replying: “You can go and report to whoever you want.”

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Explaining what exactly transpired during the spat that involved Fortis and Gibson, India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak later wrote that the rivalry started after Fortis shouted at a member of the India support staff. “He was sitting on the roller, he shouted and told the support staff not to take [the cooler] there,” Kotak said. “It is good to be a little possessive and it is also good to be protective, but not that much.”

Kotak defended Gambhir’s reaction, stating, “Gautam just said do not talk to the support staff like this. At the end of the day it is a cricket pitch. It is not an antique where you can’t touch.”

The occurrence is timely at a tense point of what has grown into a rather fractious series. England has a 2-1 lead in the five match series and the fourth Test starts Thursday. Tensions had already been simmering at the third Test at Lord where an instance of time-wasting controversy on the part of England openers, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett had led to a strident criticism by the Indian side. The fourth Test also concluded because India cricketers Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar chased individual achievements rather than a handshake that would have offered an early end to that match due to England skipper Ben Stokes.

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