Alex Hartley, Rory Burns, Ben Duckett engage in war of words after England’s loss to India in Ahmedabad

England’s crushing 10-wicket loss to India in the third Test in Ahmedabad has given rise to a war of words on Twitter between the Brits’ men’s and women’s players. At the Narendra Modi Stadium, the Three Lions were bundled out inside two days. England could only manage 112 and 81 in their first and second innings respectively after which India chased down 49 without trouble.

After the defeat, Alex Hartley, the English women’s cricketer, dropped a funny tweet. She dropped the tweet before England women’s second ODI against New Zealand women at the University Oval in Dunedin.

Hartley took to Twitter and wrote, “Nice of the England boys to get this test match finished just before England Women play tonight,”

Nice of the England boys to get this test match finished just before England Women play tonight 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Catch them on @btsportcricket #INDvENG #bbccricket #NZvENG

— Alexandra Hartley (@AlexHartley93) February 25, 2021

The tweet didn’t go down well with Rory Burns, England’s left-handed batter, who lashed out at Hartley. Calling the latter’s attitude ‘disappointing’, he wrote, “Very disappointing attitude considering all the boys do to support the Women’s game.”

However, after finding the humorous angle of Hartley’s tweet, Burns deleted his own tweet. James Anderson and Ben Stokes had also liked the tweet before it was taken down.

Hartley had also clarified that the issue had been blown out of proportion and she didn’t mean any offence whatsoever. She wrote, “Think it’s been taken the wrong way/out of context. No offence was meant. We are all test match fans.”

Ben Duckett, another English southpaw, also expressed his disappointment over Hartley’s tweet. Duckett took to Twitter and wrote, “Average tweet. Don’t think any of the men’s team would be ‘clapping emojis’ if the women lost.”

Average tweet. Don’t think any of the men’s team would have been “👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼” if the women lost. https://t.co/4dgW7NMEeM

— Ben Duckett (@BenDuckett1) February 25, 2021

Joe Root disappointed with England’s performance

After going 1-2 down in the four-match series, Root wasn’t a happy man by any means. He’s looking forward to parking aside the disappointment of the third Test and make a strong comeback.

“We were 70 for 2. But we didn’t really capitalize on it. 250 on that wicket would have made it different. We will come back using this hurt and come back as a better team. The plastic coating on the ball gathered pace off the wicket.

“It was high-quality bowling as well. Both sides struggled on that wicket. We don’t define ourselves on a performance like this. We shouldn’t have any baggage from the previous games going into the last game,” Root said after the game.