'Virat Kohli, Siraj Sledged But Gautam Gambhir Got Carried Away': Naveen-ul-Haq Recalls IPL Spat

‘virat kohli, siraj sledged but gautam gambhir got carried away’: naveen-ul-haq recalls ipl spat

The 2023 IPL season saw a fiery exchange between Afghanistan pacer Naveen-ul-Haq and veteran Indian batsman Virat Kohli. It all happened during the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) vs Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) match. The spat reportedly involved aggressive words and gestures, forcing Gautam Gambhir, the LSG mentor, to intervene.

Naveen had said something to Kohli during the match when he came to bat alongside Amit Mishra and the exchange continued after the match when the former RCB skipper gave it back during the handshake. The confrontation got more serious when Gambhir landed up in the midst of it all.

Recent comments from Naveen-ul-Haq shed some light on the incident. The Afghan fast bowler revealed, “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.”

“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,” he said in a podcast with Zalmi TV.

Naveen also spoke about Gambhir’s role in the entire episode and said, “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 runout. Because of that, he wanted to silence the crowd. He is a passionate guy, and so is Virat,” Naveed added.

Kohli and Gambhir were slapped with 100 per cent fines for match fees while Naveen got a 50 per cent cut.