The first session of day 3, Saturday, of the Dharamsala Test saw a fiery sledging battle between Shubman Gill and Jonny Bairstow.
It took the last Test of the five-Test series for things to really get spiced up between the India and England players. And while it were senior players Jonny Bairstow and James Anderson in England’s corner, for India young lads Shubman Gill and Sarfaraz Khan took on the English legends with a verbal assault.
When coming into to bat in the morning session on Saturday, Jonny Bairstow, playing in his 100th Test, confronted Shubman Gill about his words to James Anderson on day 2. Gill and Anderson had had a go at each other on Friday as the young India batsman notched up his second century of the series. Gill apparently had told Anderson to “retire”.
Bairstow asked Gill of this remark to Anderson and the Indian youngster hit back, proudly admitting that he told the 41-year-old Anderson to call a day on his Test career.
This irked Bairstow and both had a severely heated conversation which spilled into Jonny bringing up Gill’s experience and Gill taunting Bairstow about his below-par series with the bat. Sarfaraz Khan, who was fielding nearby, too, lashed out at Bairstow in Hindi.
Some of the bits of the conversation that can be heard are detailed here.
Bairstow asked Gill: “What did you say to Jimmy about getting retired (or tired) and he got you out after that?”
Gill replied: “So what, it was (he dismissed me) after hundred. How many have you got here?”
Bairstow shot back “How many have you got in England?”
Sarfaraz said: : “Thoda sa runs kya Banadiya jyada uchal Raha hai”
All this was picked up on the stump mic and the video of this incident has gone viral.
Watch: Shubman Gill and Jonny Bairstow engage in a fiery verbal fight in Dharamsala
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🫶🏻🫶🏻 pic.twitter.com/uBq4DueaYX
— zahana🕷️ (@77ftw_) March 9, 2024
J bairstow : What did you say to Jimmy about getting tired and he got you out after that?
Gill: So what,it was after 100,how many have you got here?
JB: How many have got in England?
Sarfaraz: Thoda sa runs kya Banadiya jyada uchal Raha hai 😭 pic.twitter.com/JfzRPEyTL7
— Shivani (@shivani_45D) March 9, 2024
Bairstow came out swinging and cracked 39 runs in 31 balls but was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav. England have lost five wickets by lunch, captain Ben Stokes being the latest dismissal. England are 103/5 at lunch, still trailing by 156 more runs.
Also Read: ‘First Time I Saw Him..’: Sachin Tendulkar’s Tribute To James Anderson As Pacer Claims 700 Wickets
