Moments after Joe Root and co. endured a humiliating 10-wicket loss against India in the third Test in Ahmedabad, which finished inside two days, Alexandra Hartley, England women team’s player, joked about the men’s team dismal show. “Nice of the England boys to get this Test match finished just before England Women play tonight,” the bowler wrote in her tweet.
However, her joke didn’t go well with England opener Rory Burns as he sent out a tweet expressing his disappointment, but deleted it later. Burns in his tweet wrote: “Very disappointing attitude considering all the ‘boys’ do to support the women’s game.”
Burns tweet was well recieved by his teammates Ben Stokes and James Anderson, who were quick to like it but have so far kept quiet on Hartley’s reaction.
However, Hartley responded back to Burns and clarified that she didn’t mean to offend anyone and expressed her love towards the longer format of the game.
Think it’s been taken the wrong way/out of context. No offence was meant. We are all test match fans pic.twitter.com/NIJU8QM2Xi
— Alexandra Hartley (@AlexHartley93) February 25, 2021
Meanwhile, Samit Patel, who has featured for England in six Tests, and Ben Duckett also voiced similar opinions and lashed out at Hartley for her sarcastic reaction.
It’s not her best tweet is it Ben. I also think it’s not banter either. In my opinion very disrespectful towards the boys.
— Samit Patel (@Samitpatel21) February 25, 2021
On a pitch, which heavily assisted the spinners, the Indian spin pair of Axar Patel and R Ashwin combined to pick 18 wickets and bundled out England for paltry 112 and 81 respectively. England skipper Joe Root also claimed his career-best figures with the ball and went on to complete his maiden five-wicket haul in the longer format of the game.
