India head coach Gautam Gambhir has endorsed the decision of his batsmen to remain at the crease and reach their centuries even after England captain Ben Stokes offered to conclude the game in a draw by shaking hands.
The incident had taken place during the last drinks break of the fourth Test, when Stokes had proposed to abandon the game.
Ravindra Jadeja was at that stage batting on 89, and Washington Sundar on 80. Both the batsmen, in touching distance of personal landmarks, rejected the proposal and decided to press on with their innings. This seemed to upset the English captain, who had a visibly fraught confrontation on the field.
The altercation ended in a on-field altercation, casting a dramatic cloud over the final minutes of what had been an intense and evenly balanced Test. To make matters more tense, Stokes significantly avoided shaking hands with Jadeja and Sundar in the traditional post-match ceremony.
Speaking to the media after the match, Gambhir defended his players and questioned the response from the England camp. "If a batsman is batting at 90 and another at 85, don't they deserve a hundred? Would have they walked off? If an Englishman would have been batting at 90 or 85 and had the chance to make their first Test hundred, wouldn't you let them do it? See, it's in their hands. If they want to play like that, it's in their hands. I believe that both these guys deserved a hundred, and they got one," Gambhir said.
Having rejected the chance to settle for a draw, Jadeja got his century with panache, coming out to loft one from Harry Brook over the mid-wicket for a six, before complementing it with a boundary off a full toss from the same player.
Sundar quickly followed Jadeja into the three-figure club, driving Brook over extra cover for a four to take the two-figure partnership to 200. A tidy leg-side flick provided him with the runs he required to score his first Test century.
When both sides had completed their centuries, the sides finally shook hands to end the match officially as a draw. India was the more pleased side, with brave efforts by a resurgent KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Jadeja, and Sundar guaranteeing that they remained in the contest in the five-Test series.
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