Before the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season, Naveen-ul-Haq, a player for Lucknow Super Giants, remembered his well-known argument with Virat Kohli.
During a match between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Lucknow, there was a bad argument between the players. It began when Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq exchanged heated words during the game. Later, Naveen-ul-Haq refused to shake hands with Kohli after the match, which is a usual post-match tradition. Former LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir also got involved, making the situation worse.
Naveen-ul-Haq Revealed Unknown Details About Fight With Virat Kohli
Naveen-ul-Haq and Kohli had a heated argument and were separated by other players. Nearly a year later, Naveen-ul-Haq disclosed the reason that angered Gambhir and led him to intervene in the argument.
Naveen-ul-Haq explained that the issue began when Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) visited Bangalore earlier in the season. LSG won the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on the last ball, causing a lot of excitement. Avesh Khan, after hitting the winning runs, took off his helmet and slammed it on the ground in celebration. Gambhir was also seen celebrating enthusiastically.
Speaking on a podcast with Zalmi TV, Naveen 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,”
He added: “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,”
Further, Naveen-ul-Haq clarified why Gambhir made the ‘finger on the lips’ gesture. Following LSG’s victory on the last ball, Gambhir silenced the Bengaluru crowd by placing his finger on his lips. He revealed:
“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 into bowl. It was the last wicket. It got heated because the bowler missed taking the bails off.”
He added: “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,”
Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq reconciled during the ODI World Cup last year. They will face each other again in IPL 2024, starting on March 22.
