Ben Stokes' offer for a draw was refused by Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar.
At the time, Jadeja was batting on 89, 11 short of his fifth Test century, while Sundar was on 80, 20 away from his maiden Test ton.
India’s decision to carry on batting left the England skipper irked. Stokes walked towards Jadeja and threw verbal jabs, questioning whether he truly wanted to score a Test hundred against Harry Brook.
As it turned out, Stokes actually introduced part-timer Brook into the attack and deployed Joe Root from the other end. Both Jadeja and Sundar capitalised on the soft bowling, racing to their centuries and then deciding to call it off.
In an interview with Wisden, Sundar opened up on the handshake row, citing that it fired up the Indian cricket team.
"I mean, it just happens in any sport, doesn't it?" Washington said. "We've seen a lot of such things happen, not just in cricket, but in any sport. I mean, that's how sport is. It brings out a lot. I think it was just an experience for all of us, honestly."
Sundar admitted that the tension brought the best out of him as well. "One hundred per cent. You ask this to any player — that's exactly what you would hear. Especially in Test cricket, you want to be challenged because that's exactly what you expect every single day. And when the situation gets tough, the only thing that will help you get over it and come out successful is being really tough in your head,” he stated.
"Every player who's played this format and been successful would have done this extremely well and over a long period of time, quite consistently as well," he added.
India won the fifth Test at the Oval by a narrow margin of six runs to level the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2-2.
Commenting on the Oval Test win, Sundar said: "It was fabulous. I mean, just the way the game turned out after every session was fabulous. Especially on Day 5, that 40 minutes was super intense because when you know the target has come down to single digits, you never know — anything could happen. Literally one delivery could change the entire course of the game and take it from the opposition."