"Give them a red card, get them off" - Ex-England cricketer's brutal suggestion after Shubman Gill-Zak Crawley incident in ENG vs IND 2025 Test series

Former England cricketer David Lloyd has suggested a radical change to rules after the verbal altercation between Zak Crawley and Shubman Gill during the recent Test series on English soil. He revealed that he had earlier batted for giving yellow and red cards to players, besides getting them off the field for brash behaviour.

The incident between Crawley and Gill occurred on Day 3 of the third Test at Lord's Cricket Ground. With Crawley seemingly wasting time at the fag end of the day to get through without facing many deliveries, the Indian skipper came at the England opener aggressively. Gill used some cuss words, with Crawley also retaliating, resulting in a verbal altercation.

Speaking on The Stick to Cricket Podcast, Llloyd recalled the suggestion he gave when he was part of the Elite umpires' selection committee. He said, as quoted by The Times of India:

"Don’t upset the players. I used to be on that committee. I used to be on the elite umpires selection committee. And I said I always was on about yellow cards, red cards. Give them a yellow card. Give them a red card. Get them off. And they said, ‘No, you’ve got to try and get on the same wavelength over five days or a four-day game, whatever it is, and try to work with the players."

In the post-play presser, England's bowling coach Tim Southee had criticised Gill for complaining about time-wasting, saying he had no right to do so.

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"There's a manner to do it" - Shubman Gill on England's tactics

Shubman Gill. (Image Credits: Getty)

Ahead of the fourth Test at Old Trafford, Gill spoke about the incident at the presser and said coming to the crease 90 seconds late was inexcusable. The 25-year-old said, as quoted by BBC Sport:

"A lot of people have been talking about it, so let me clear the air once and for all. If we were in that position, we would also like to play less overs, but there's a manner to do it. To be able to come 90 seconds late to the crease is not something that I would think comes in the spirit of the game."

The hard-fought five-Test series ended in a 2-2 scoreline.