Naveen Ul Haq recalls his famous altercation with Virat Kohli during IPL 2023
Naveen Ul Haq (Source-Twitter)
Afghanistan pacer Naveen Ul Haq was involved in a huge spat during the last edition of IPL. The youngster had a famous run-in with former Indian skipper Virat Kohli when Lucknow took on RCB.
The 25-year-old made startling comments when he was interviewed by Zalmi TV on the sidelines of PSL 2024. One of the biggest claims made by the pacer is that the provocateurs were Mohammed Siraj and Virat Kohli.
Gautam Gambhir got involved in the spat as his now infamous argument with Virat Kohli took place. The bad blood between the two players was settled during the 2023 ODI World Cup. India and Afghanistan played each other in New Delhi as the two stars buried the hatchet.
Naveen Ul Haq makes startling revelations about his fight with Virat Kohli
IPL 2023 became famous for the infamous spat between Naveen-ul-Haq and Virat Kohli. The incident happened when Lucknow Super Giants took on Royal Challengers Bangalore in Lucknow. Gautam Gambhir and Amit Mishra too had expressed their views to the former India and RCB skipper.
The Afghan star while speaking to Zalmi TV said “I think I went out to bat at No. 9 or 10 and we had pretty much lost the game by then. 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.”
Recounting what started the entire fracas this is what Naveen Ul Haq said “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.”
Former LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir made headlines for his ‘Shut Up’ celebrations to the RCB crowd. “Gautam Gambhir got carried away because in the previous game (1st RCB-LSG game last), 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.”
The fast bowler also touched upon his now famous hug with the former India skipper. “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,”
