'That incident revved up the group': Gill-Crawley spat sparked team meeting and shift in England's attitude, reveals Carse

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6 days ago

Shubman Gill's aggressive reaction to Zak Crawley's time-wasting tactics led to an England team meeting, where the home side decided to adopt a more combative on-field approach, Brydon Carse revealed as they won the Lord's Test from a losing position. read more
As per Brydon Carse, the Gill-Crawley spat was the trigger that sparked England's comeback in Lord's Test. Images: Reuters
England fast bowler Brydon Carse has revealed a secret team meeting was called after Day 4 of the Lord's Test against India in which the players and management decided to adopt a change in their on-field behaviour. Carse says the meeting was called after India, under the captaincy of Shubman Gill, started to get aggressive with their mental games and on-field behaviour.
The first major on-field incident of the ongoing five-match Test series between India and Ben Stokes-led England took place on Day 3 of the third match at Lord's when Gill got into an argument with English opener Zak Crawley over time wasting. On Day 4, Siraj gave an aggressive send-off to Duckett, for which he was later fined by the ICC, and India were also seen using time-wasting tactics towards the end.
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England meeting sparks better performance
In an exclusive interview with Mail Sport, Carse has revealed that the whole English team had a meeting after the end of the fourth day's play, where it was decided that they needed to put on a more aggressive tone on the field and it was the Gill vs Crawley incident that had sparked the change.
'That incident at the end of day three probably revved up the whole group, and we had that discussion at the end of day four,' Carse told Mail Sport. 'And I think the common thing was that sometimes, as an English cricket team, we can come across a little bit too nice, whereas the opposition are very quick to get stuck into us.
'So it was just brilliant that the whole team bought into that. We want to be aggressive and give it a good crack. We want to play the game in the right spirit, but still be up for a bit of a fight and a challenge.
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Carse admitted that the change in nature allowed the English players to perform better. 'When you're out on that field and you've got 10 other blokes all fighting your corner, I'm definitely one that won't shy away from something like that. It certainly gets your beans going and your emotions going, but it's also important in those situations to control it.'