Team India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak has commented on head coach Gautam Gambhir’s spat with The Oval’s pitch curator Lee Fortis as well. Kotak revealed that Fortis also asked India’s coaches to stand 2.5m away from the wicket and also yelled at the Indian support staff, which Gambhir didn’t like.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Kotak explained: “When we went to see the wicket, the coaches were standing over there. He [Fortis] sent a person over there and asked us to step 2.5m away, which was a little surprising. It’s a cricket wicket, a five-day Test is going to take place and we were wearing joggers. Curator yelled at support staff when they were getting ice box. Gambhir objected at that. The way he spoke irked Gambhir. Everyone knows curator at The Oval is not the easiest person to deal with.”

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“We all have been on the ground enough, have played so much cricket. We all know that curators are little over-protective or possessive about the square and ground and all. What he said about head coach, I don’t really want to comment. That’s his opinion and everyone in this world have their opinions. Just looking at the wicket with rubber spikes, there is nothing wrong there. The curators also need to understand that the people they are talking to are highly skilled and intelligent people. It’s a cricket pitch, not an antique which you cannot touch, which is 200 years old and can be broken. Maybe he is thinking that we are trying to grow some grass, that’s what he felt,” Kotak shared again.

Earlier, the Oval curator also defended himself over the controversy and said the Indian head coach was a ‘bit touchy.

Speaking to reporters, Fortis said: “You saw what he was like this morning. He’s a bit touchy! There’s no side of the story. You’ll have to ask him that. I’m okay we’ve have got nothing to hide here.”