IND vs ENG | Twitter in disbelief as Gill sledges Anderson to retire and rips into Bairstow's form

IND vs ENG | Twitter in disbelief as Gill sledges Anderson to retire and rips into Bairstow's form

SportsCafe Desk

By SportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Even though Shubman Gill has been touted as the poster boy of the modern era of carefree cricketers, a fiery competitive edge burns deep within him that came to the fore in Dharamsala. An altercation with Jonny Bairstow over form revealed Gill had asked James Anderson to retire the previous day.

India had practically sealed the series 4-1 by Lunch on Day 2 in the final Test in Dharamsala after whittling down England to 103/5 after securing a mammoth first-innings lead of 256 runs. Despite the dead-rubber nature of the encounter and the gap in competitiveness between the two teams in the Himalayan foothills, fighting spirit refused to take a backseat as an unlikely Shubman Gill took the charge against a perpetually fired-up Jonny Bairstow. The duo got into a fierce sledging match during the opening session on Saturday, involving some razor-sharp remarks from the 24-year-old to the York playing his 100th Test match.

The exchange began with a reference to a brief squabble that had occurred between centurion Gill and James Anderson the previous day and even though the former had refused to reveal the details to the press at Stumps stating it's better for both if the matter remains on the field, Bairstow was not willing to let the youngster live down his remarks. Here is how the exchange went between the two:

Bairstow: "Did you say to Jimmy, 'Are you retiring before you get dropped?' What did you say to Jimmy about retiring... And then he got you out next ball?"

Gill: "So what? How many times has he got me? He can get me out after a hundred"

Bairstow: "100 percent"

Gill: "How many hundreds have you scored [in the series]?"

Bairstow: "How many hundreds have you scored full stop?"

In an attempt to tone down the hostilities, rookie wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel intervened with a throwaway remark of his own, "Chup karne bolo isko, thodhe se run kya bana liye series me zyada uchhal raha hai [Ask him to shut up, he is flying too high having scored a few runs in the series]". Everything said and done, the incident added some much-needed fight and excitement on an otherwise lopsided day of cricket and Twitterati was all to ready to feast on it.  

Verbal WWE!!

What a fight!

LOL

JB wanted to talk!

Absolute cinema

Sledging ultra max pro

JB v SG

It's funny AF! 

Shots fired!

Attack mode!

Face to face!

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