James Anderson reveals heated conversation with Shubman Gill
On Day 2 of the fifth Test between India and England in Dharamshala, youngster Shubman Gill got engaged in a heated argument with veteran pacer James Anderson. After Gill managed to hit a century in the first innings, Anderson walked towards Gill and sledged about his performance in Test cricket outside India. In reply, Gill advised the England international to retire from the game as he struggled to pick wickets in the recently concluded series.
After the match, when Gill was asked to speak on the matter, the 24–year–old refused to comment but Anderson eventually revealed the details and added that he had the last laugh on that day as he got the better of the Punjab-born cricketer after two balls.
“I said something to him like, ‘Do you get any runs outside India?’ and he said, ‘It’s time to retire. Then two balls later, I got him out,” Anderson revealed on BBC’s Tailender podcast.
Meanwhile, the matter didn’t quite end there. When England came out to bat in the second innings, Jonny Bairstow got involved in a conversation with Gill as the stumper-batter asked the youngster about his heated argument with Anderson. The Indian batter responded aggressively as Sarfaraz Khan too got involved in the conversation.
On the other hand, Gill was Anderson’s 699th wicket in Test cricket. He dismissed Kuldeep Yadav to pick up his 700th Test wicket and became the only pacer in history to achieve this feat. He is currently behind spin wizards Muttiah Muralidaran and Shane Warne in the list of most wickets in the longest format of the game.
Anderson reveals his conversation with Kuldeep
The star pacer revealed that Kuldeep Yadav previously told him that the spinner had a feeling that he would be Anderson’s 700th Test wicket. The England international added that Kuldeep wasn’t trying to get out but it was his gut feeling that eventually came true.
“Kuldeep edged one down to third man for a single and as he got to the non-striker’s end and as I was walking back to my mark, he said, ‘I’m going to be your 700th wicket. He wasn’t saying he was trying to get out, he was just saying he had a feeling. We both laughed at it,” the 41-year-old said.
