On Day 1 of the third Test of the current five-match series between England and India at Lord’s, Shubman Gill was seen amusingly sledging the opposition batters. He was observed threatening Ollie Pope and Joe Root, who were fielding in the slip cordon, that they were not meeting Bazball’s standards and that they should instead play a more conventional, uninteresting style of cricket.
Jasprit Bumrah caught Gill’s sledging on-mic during one of his overs. Pope had left a package for the wicketkeeper to pick up outside the off stump.
Gill took a sneaky jab at the lacklustre performance with the bat in terms of the net run rate and kept things interesting with his chirping from the slips.
“Dudes, there can be no more amusing cricket. On television, the Indian captain was heard saying, “Welcome to dull Test cricket.”
#ShubmanGill, with the most sarcastic sledge of the season kyunki ye seekhne nahi, sikhane aaye hain 😎
“Welcome to Boring Test Cricket.” 🫢💭
Who said Test matches aren’t spicy? 🔥#ENGvIND 👉 3rd TEST, DAY 1 | LIVE NOW on JioHotstar ➡ https://t.co/H1YUOckUwK pic.twitter.com/U7fEy4HXpR
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) July 10, 2025
Regarding the present game, India had the first session after Nitish Kumar Reddy hit two runs in his opening over to dismiss Zak Crawley (18 off 43) and Ben Duckett (23 off 40). After 25 overs, the hosts reached 83/2.
Pope and Root made it to lunch without incident. On the opening ball of the third session, though, the former had to walk back for 44 off 104. Ravindra Jadeja made the breakthrough, and substitute goalie Dhruv Jurel seized the chance.
Harry Brook had to leave after inside-edging a Jasprit Bumrah delivery onto the stumps a few overs later. As of this writing, Root is still batting captain Ben Stokes, and England is 196 for four wickets after 62 overs.