'Gautam Gambhir got carried away because…': Naveen-ul-Haq on GG's shush gesture that led to Virat Kohli IPL blow-up

Emotions ran high that night in Lucknow.

Afghanistan fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq recalled his infamous spat with Virat Kohli involving Gautam Gambhir that took place during last year’s IPL. During Lucknow Super Giants’ away game against Royal Challengers Bangalore, tempers ran high as things between Kohli and Naveen got extremely heated, forcing Gambhir to intervene.

The spat that began as Kohli vs Naveen, eventually took the shape of Kohli vs Gambhir as the two former India teammates nearly came to blows. Naveen, who has spoke about the incident earlier, shared some more insights into the series of events that went down and triggered the spat – the first of the two RCB vs LSG game, when KL Rahul’s team flew to Bengaluru to play Faf du Plessis at the Chinnaswamy where Lucknow won last-ball thriller.

“We went to play our away match in Bengaluru. That’s where it all started. We won that game – it was very close – so one of our players [Avesh Khan] threw the helmet in excitement after scoring the winning runs. Virat Kohli probably didn’t like it. Next, their team came to Lucknow. I think I went out to bat at No. 9 or 10 and we had pretty much lost the game by then,” Naveen said in a podcast with Zalmi TV.

“So, I didn’t expect that I would be sledged. But when it happened, like I said, when someone starts, I can’t hold back. After the game, things continued during the handshake too. The sledging came from two guys – Kohli and Mohammed Siraj.”

What exactly fuelled Gambhir

After the win, Gambhir stormed into the ground and silenced the crowd with a shush celebration before aggressively shaking the hands of opponent players, including Kohli’s. The gesture created a lot of buzz amid the IPL as it once again pitted Gambhir against Kohli, who are no strangers to igniting controversy.

Way back in 2011, Gambhir and Kohli were involved in a heated exchange after the then-KKR captain mouthed some words to the RCB skipper on his dismissal. In 12 years, a lot of water would have flown between the bridges. Or so we thought. That Gambhir and Kohli came face-to-face once again, needing to be separated by teammates clearly did not make for the most comfortable and pleasant viewing.

“Gautam Gambhir got carried away [with the shush gesture] because in the previous game, when we needed 1 off 1, one of their bowlers wanted to run the non-striker out while running in to bowl. It was the last wicket. It got heated because the bowler missed taking the bails off. Spirit-wise it wasn’t looking good because it had proven to be such a good game by then. It would have been a shame had it ended in a run out. Because of that, he wanted to silence the crowd. He is a passionate guy, and so is Virat,” Naveed added.

How Kohli, Naveen buried the hatchet

It took four months but Naveen and Kohli finally buried the hatchet when India played their World Cup 2023 match against Afghanistan in Delhi. The World Cup was Naveen’s first tournament back after undergoing successful rehab in the UK for a knee injury. After Rohit Sharma was dismissed for 131 in India’s successful chase of 273, during the commercial break, Kohli and Naveen let bygones be bygones as they shook hands and hugged.

“When I was going back to my position at long off, Virat bhai said ‘let’s finish this and forget what’s happened’. Even after the game, he said that the crowd won’t bother you anymore,” added Naveen.

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