Some non-verbal tempers flared between Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly during the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Delhi Capitals (DC) at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium earlier this month in Indian Premier League 2023. A couple of incidents involving the duo led to the fans believing that the rift between Ganguly and Kohli is still hot and neither of them is laying down.
First, when Virat Kohli was fielding, the RCB star seemingly gave a hard death stare to the Capitals’ Director of Cricket. Then, after the completion of the match, Kohli and Ganguly ignored each other and didn’t shake hands. Sourav Ganguly skipped the queue and moved around Ricky Ponting while ignoring Kohli’s handshake. Virat, after having a brief chat with Ponting, looked toward Ganguly who didn’t look back at the RCB star.
Meanwhile, Shane Watson, who is with the DC as their assistant coach, was on the ‘The Grade Cricketer’ podcast where the hosts brought out this situation between Kohli and Ganguly. Watson said that Kohli certainly has some “fire in his belly” before opening up his mind about this strife between the two giants of Indian cricket.
“It could be rumour-mongering, but I’m not sure. So, it’s not something I want to get involved in. But there was definitely some fire in Virat’s belly, that’s for sure. From an opposition point of view, that’s the last thing you need as well. Virat, when he’s like that, that’s when he’s at his absolute best. Whatever reason that was, I’m not exactly sure,” Shane Watson said.
This strife between Kohli and Ganguly stems from the duration of the latter’s tenure as the BCCI President. Kohli had stepped down as the T20 captain in 2021 before he was removed as the ODI captain. Soon after he also stepped down as the Test skipper.
There was public quarrel among the duo when both said contradictory statements with the then chief selector Chetan Sharma also getting involved in this controversy.
Meanwhile, Kohli is leading RCB again. Because of Faf du Plessis carrying a back injury, Kohli came out at the toss against PBKS, revealing that Faf will only be batting and will not field.
