India vs England: Vikram Rathour speaks on alleged 'ball-tampering' incident at Lord's

India vs England: The video of the incident went viral on social media with twitterati discussing whether the moment was deliberate or accidental.

India batting coach Vikram Rathour downplayed the allegations of 'ball-tampering' on Day 4 of the 2nd Test against England at Lord's and said that he believes the incident was completely "accidental". The incident took place before the 34th over of the match when two England players appeared to step on the ball with their spikes during India's second innings.

Vikram Rathour has spokne on the incident.(Twitter/Screenshot)

The video of the incident went viral on social media with twitterati discussing whether the moment was deliberate or accidental.

 

 

Former India cricketers Virender Sehwag and Aakash Chopra also took to Twitter to point out the potential breach of rules during the play at Lord's.

 

On being asked about the moment after the end of play at the press conference, Rathour said that the Indian team did not think much about the incident.

"Not really, we were sitting outside so we hardly saw those replays. I saw it later, it does not look anything deliberate. I think it was accidental, we did not think anything about it actually," said Rathour during a virtual press conference, according to news agency ANI.

Shaun Pollock who was commenting at that time also showed his disapproval regarding the incident. Notably, the ball wasn't changed by the umpires after this incident.

Pollock even mentioned the match referee might want to have a look at it. England pacer Stuart Broad though was quick to call it an accident. Replying to a fan on Twitter, he wrote: "As I'm sure you're aware from watching the full footage- it wasn't deliberate was it. End of Story."

 

India have a lead of 154 runs in the match and will hope they can stretch it close to 200 before getting all out on Day 5 to give a challenging total for the hosts to chase down.

But the balance of the play is currently tilted in the favour of England, who will be looking to get quick wickets and chase down the total to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

(With news agency ANI)