“The English batsmen on that day, they had seven minutes of play left,” said Gill. “They were 90 seconds late to come to the crease. Not 10, not 20, they were 90 seconds late.
“Leading up to that event, a lot of things we thought should not have happened, happened. I wouldn’t say it’s something I’m very proud of, but there was a lead-up and build-up to that event. It didn’t just come out of nowhere.
“We had no intention of doing that whatsoever. You’re playing a game, playing to win and there are a lot of emotions involved. When you see things happening that should not happen, sometimes the emotions come out of nowhere.”
Stokes spoke before Gill, so did not have the opportunity to respond directly to the allegation his team acted against the spirit of the game.
On Monday, batter Harry Brook revealed coach Brendon McCullum told England they were “too nice” before the Lord’s Test, an assessment Stokes agreed with.
“Maybe too nice is a good way to put it, so it’s great when we can go out and do what we did there, and we were able to back it up with our actions,” Stokes told BBC Sport.
Despite the regular flashpoints over the final two days of the Lord’s Test, Stokes was adamant neither team engaged in any behaviour that was unacceptable.
“Conversations and back-and-forth you see out in the middle sometimes get massively over-analysed and criticised,” said Stokes.
“No-one would have gone crying themselves to sleep over what we said to each other. We’re very quick these days to stamp down on that kind of stuff. It just shows passion, desire. Both teams are out there wanting to win.
“It’s never going to go over the line and if it does go over the line, then it’s the responsibility of the captain out there to pull it back. At not one stage did we go over the line and at not one stage did India go over the line.”
England will win the series with a game to spare if they win the fourth Test in Manchester. India have not won on any of their nine visits to this ground, while England have lost only twice here this century.
Although the aggression served England well at Lord’s, Stokes said his team will not go seeking confrontation at Old Trafford.
“We are certainly not going to go out there and just start it off for nothing, because I don’t want it to take our attention away from what the goal of this week is,” said Stokes.
“It was nice we’ve said we’re not going to let any team feel like they can intimidate us in any way.
“It’s not about shying away from confrontation, it’s just making sure that is not the main goal. It’s doing it in the right way, keeping your emotions in check with it all.
“Every team in the world, if there’s a little bit of niggle, I’m sure all their team-mates will jump in and help them out. That’s what we did last week.”
