India captain Shubman Gill defended his reaction to the Lord's Test controversy after facing the England openers on the third day of play. In the last over of Day 3, Gill used some harsh language toward Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley because he was annoyed by their time-wasting shenanigans. As the England opener called for the physiotherapist, Gill was even spotted mockingly throwing the X sign to indicate that Crawley was seriously injured.

Since then, Gill's reaction and aggression have been examined by fans and experts, with the likes of Sanjay Manjrekar and Manoj Tiwary suggesting that the Indian skipper went beyond. But Gill decided to settle the matter once and for all on the eve of the Manchester Test.

With just seven minutes of play remaining, the Indian captain claimed that the England batters were 90 seconds late to the crease. Although Gill acknowledged that most teams attempt to waste time to face fewer overs, he believed that the England team's actions were not in line with the spirit of the game.

"Yes, a lot of people have been talking about it, so let me just clear the air once and for all. The English batters on that day, they had 7 minutes of play left. They were 90 seconds late to come to the crease, not 10, not 20, 90 seconds late. Yes, most of the teams, they use this, even if we were in a position, we would have also liked to play lesser overs, but there's a manner to do it."

"And we felt, yes, if you get hit on your body, the physios are allowed to come on, and that is something that is fair. But to be able to come 90 seconds later on the crease is not, that is not something that I would think comes in the spirit of the game," said Gill.

According to Gill, several things that should not have happened throughout the match transpired, therefore it was not something that happened suddenly. Although the Indian captain expressed his displeasure with the outcome, he asserted that there was a build-up and that the reaction was not unexpected.

"And just leading up to that event. A lot of things that we thought should not have happened had happened. I wouldn't say it was something that I'm very proud of, but, there was a lead-up and build-up to that. It didn't just come out of nowhere and we had no intention of doing that whatsoever. But you're playing a game, you're playing to win, and there are a lot of emotions involved, and when you see there are things happening that should not happen, sometimes the emotions come out of nowhere," said Gill.

India and England will go one-on-one against each other once against in the fourth Test which will be played in Manchester from July 23.