ENG vs IND, 5th Test: What Sparked Gambhir's Verbal Spat with the Oval Pitch Curator? Reason REVEALED

India's batting coach Sitanshu Kotak revealed that Gautam Gambhir's spat with the Oval curator began when a ground staffer rudely told him to stay 2.5m away from the pitch—an unusual demand that Gambhir found disrespectful and unnecessary.

Team India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak has revealed the reason behind head coach Gautam Gambhir’s heated exchange with the Oval pitch curator for the fifth and final Test of the series against England, which will start on July 31.

As Team India prepares for the series decider, which will decide the fate of the visitors, who are currently trailing 1-2 after an epic Manchester Test draw, thanks to their resilient batting, Gambhir hogged the spotlight after he was spotted having a verbal altercation with the venue’s pitch curator, Lee Fortis.

Gambhir was overseeing India’s first practice session at the Oval when the head coach got furious at Lee Fortis, who had a word with the 44-year-old, which did not get entertained by his typically intense and no-nonsense demeanour. As per the report, Gambhir allegedly told Fortis, ‘You don't need to tell us what we need to do’, which escalated to a verbal altercation between the two.

This incident came after a few days following England skipper Ben Stokes’s controversial decision to request a draw when Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar were nearing centuries. Jadeja politely declined Stokes’s request for a draw until he and Sundar completed their centuries.

Why did Gambhir have a spat with the Oval Curator?

After the video of Gautam Gambhir and the Oval pitch curator Lee Fortis having a verbal spat went viral on social media, there was immense curiosity about what triggered the heated exchange. Batting coach Sitanshu Kotak clarified the reason behind the incident.

Speaking at the press conference, Kotak offered India’s perspective on the incident, stating that the ground staffer rudely asked Gambhir to stay 2.5 metres away from the pitch, which he found quite unnecessary, triggering an angry reaction from the former India opener.

“We were standing on the pitch and looking at it, and one of the ground staff came and told us to stand 2.5 metres away from it,” Kotak said.

“In my cricketing career, I’ve never seen anybody saying that. He was literally telling the head coach to go outside the rope (that cordons off the pitch). I don’t know how you can see it (from there).

“If somebody is rubbing his shoes or trying to put something in the pitch or wearing spikes, then it’s fine. But it was very strange the way he said, ‘You go and stand 2.5 metres away from here’. I think that is what started it,” he added.

The ongoing Test series between India and England has already seen a few heated moments, that has set the tone for the series decider.

Shubman Gill and Zak Crawley were involved in a verbal spat over England opener’s deliberate ‘time wasting’ tactics on Day 3 of the Lord’s Test. Then, Ben Stokes’s controversial draw offer on the Day of the Manchester Test, which many believed was a deliberate attempt to deny Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar well-deserved centuries.

‘Over-protective’ pitch curator behaviour did not go down well with Gambhir

Further speaking about the incident, Sitanshu Kotak acknowledged that the curators are ‘over-protective’ about the square and ground, but Team India support staff behaved responsibly. He added that Gambhir ensured that the ground was not damaged and avoided spike marks during the practice.

“We know curators are a little over-protective, or possessive about the square and the ground. But I think just looking at the pitch, wearing rubber spikes - day after there is a Test match on it - there is nothing wrong,” Kotak said.

“Curators also need to understand that the people they are talking to are highly skilled and intelligent people. So, for example, if you go on the ground now where we practised, you will see that no bowler has even marked the outfield with his spikes. And that call comes from the head coach, that we’ll try to see that this ground also should not get damaged,” he added.

With the Manchester Test ending in a draw, Team India will head into the Oval Test to level the series and salvage pride in what has been a fiercely contested series of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.