"Would have been a lot more in Gautam Gambhir kind of mode"- Former captain reacts to Oval curator controversy ahead of ENG vs IND 2025 5th Test

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has said that he might have reacted similarly to Indian coach Gautam Gambhir during the spat with The Oval curator Lee Fortis. The 43-year-old was involved in a verbal exchange with Fortis two days before the start of the fifth and final Test match against England.

Vaughan felt that if the groundsman had been miffed by a water trolley on The Oval outfield, then the quality of the playing field needed to be questioned. The 50-year-old said on Sony Sports Network,

"I would have been a lot more in the Gautam Gambhir kind of mode, of pointing the finger. Ground members are very precarious about the grass. It is a game of cricket. If you are going to play 11 vs 11 running around for five days, surely someone walking quite close to the surface is not going to affect the surface. We have had problems before and Lee (Fortis) is a great groundsman and he will produce a great pitch." "To think that a team that is 2-1 down in the series and can't go on the surface and have a look and if a water trolley is upsetting your outfield so badly, suggest that the outfield is not prepared that well. It has brought more drama".

Indian batting coach Sitanshu Kotak said at a press conference that Fortis had told India's coaching staff to stand 2.5 metres away from the pitch. The former Saurashtra southpaw said that the groundsman had screamed at the support staff, which did not go down too well with Gambhir.

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Sunil Gavaskar feels that the coach and the captain should have been allowed to look at the pitch

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said that he was surprised by the spat between The Oval curator Lee Fortis and Indian coach Gautam Gambhir. He said that there is an unwritten rule that the coach and the captain of any side could take a look at the playing surface before a match. He said:

"I think generally, like Shubman Gill said, that it has not happened for the previous four games. If at all, I think any curator has been a bit prickly, it has been at Lord's. Lord's is where they don't allow you to come in. This one was a bit of a surprise - what happened and why it happened." "The circumstances you don't know, but I would imagine that the coach and the captain, it is also an unwritten sort of rule that the coach and the captain can go and see the pitch, maybe not the whole squad. If the coach and the captain wanted to go and look at the pitch, I believe they should have been allowed," Gavaskar added.

When asked about the incident, Lee Fortis refused to give away any details about the incident. He had said that it was not his job to be happy with Gambhir and added that he had not met the former India southpaw before that day.

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Edited by Aditya Singh