India, July 23 -- It took Shubman Gill just two minutes to drag England down from the moral high horse they have clambered on since the third evening of the Lord's Test. The narrative from an obliging English media has revolved around how India's ploy to confront a deliberately tardy Zak Crawley towards the closing stages of Saturday's play in the third Test backfired spectacularly on them. While it can't be denied that that faceoff seemed to adversely impact Gill, the chief protagonist, when he came out to bat in the last half-hour the following day, to ascribe India's 22-run loss to their 'confrontational' approach is taking things too far, even by English standards.

England had between six and seven minutes of batting at the start of ...