During the second day of the fifth and final Test between India and England at The Oval, a heated exchange occurred between Indian batsman KL Rahul and umpire Kumar Dharmasena. The incident arose from an earlier confrontation between Indian pacer Prasidh Krishna and England batter Joe Root.

In the 22nd over of England's first innings, Krishna had words with Root after the batter opened his account with a boundary. Umpire Dharmasena intervened, which led to KL Rahul approaching him. Rahul questioned Dharmasena's intervention, asking, "What do you want us to do? Be quiet?". Dharmasena responded, "Would you like it if any bowler came and spoke to you like that? No, you can't do that. We should not go that way". Rahul retorted, "What do you want us to do? Just bat and bowl and go home then?". Dharmasena, seemingly unhappy with Rahul's tone, replied, "We will discuss that at the end of the match. You can't talk like that".

The umpires are said to be taking the incident seriously enough to potentially warrant a post-match discussion with Rahul regarding his remarks.

The tension between the two sides was palpable throughout the day. Earlier, Rahul himself had pulled Akash Deep away from Ben Duckett during another heated moment. The atmosphere was already charged after Akash Deep's sendoff to Ben Duckett, who had contributed a rapid 43 in a 92-run opening stand.

Interestingly, Dharmasena was involved in another contentious moment on Day 1, when he seemingly signaled an inside edge while turning down an LBW appeal against Indian batsman B Sai Sudharsan. His gesture prevented England from using a DRS review, as it was interpreted as confirmation that the ball had touched the bat. Replays later confirmed a faint inside edge, adding to the list of talking points surrounding the match.

Later in the same session, Mohammed Siraj dismissed Root for 29. Siraj and Krishna both ended up taking four wickets each.