‘You abused my players, they’re like family': Gambhir and Kohli's conversation during IPL fight revealed

There were three separate yet related incidents involving Virat Kohli, Amit Mishra, Naveen-ul-Haq, and Gautam Gambhir during and after the Lucknow Super Giants vs Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL 2023 match at the Ekana Stadium that created ripples on social media and send the experts and fans into an uncomfortable position. Gambhir and Kohli were docked their full match fees while Naveen was fined 50% of his. Such was the visuals that legends like Sunil Gavaskar hinted at suspending the cricketers to ensure such a thing is not repeated.

Kohli, who was ultra-aggressive throughout the LSG chase, got retaliation of some sort from Naveen-ul-Haq in the 17th over. Amit Mishra, the non-striker, and the on-field umpires tried to broker peace but Kohli kept going at the Afghanistan pacer, who in return, just stared at him. Naveen, however, showed no signs of backing away when the teams lined up to shake hands. He grabbed Kohli's hand and pushed him as the verbal battle continued.

Seconds later, LSG opener Kyle Mayers was seen having a word with Kohli. Gambhir, the LSG mentor, came and took Mayers away even as a displeased Kohli looked on.

Both Kohli and Gambhir seemed to have gone different ways but the latter suddenly sprang into action. He charged towards the former RCB skipper aggressively, pushing away the LSG cricketers who tried to stop him. Kohli turned back and decided to move towards Gambhir. He was seen putting his hand on Gambhir's shoulder and having a word but LSG's Amit Mishra separated the two seeing the matters escalating.

So what happened in Lucknow on Monday night? An eyewitness, who was in one of the team dug-outs, gave a lowdown of events to PTI.

"You saw on TV that Mayers and Virat were walking side by side for a few metres post-match. Mayers asked Kohli why was he constantly abusing them and Virat, in turn, questioned why was he (Mayers) 'staring' at him? Before that (Amit) Mishra had complained to the umpire about Virat constantly abusing Naveen (ul-Haq), who is a No 10 batter.

"Gautam, sensing that things could turn ugly, pulled Mayers and told him not to have a conversation, when Virat made a comment. The heated exchange that followed seemed a bit juvenile," he said.

"Gautam asked 'Why are you coming in between when I haven't told you anything?'."

"Gautam responded, 'You abused my player and that's like abusing my family' and Virat's reply was, 'Then you take care of your family'.

"Gambhir's final reply before they were separated was, 'So now I have to learn from you.'

The eyewitness said that while it was tense and a blow away from turning into a free-for-all, it all seemed a bit juvenile at both ends.

It was a 'deja vu' moment for everyone who had seen the duo nearly come to blows in 2013, when Kolkata Knight Riders were playing Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Kohli was then the superstar-in-the-making and Gambhir, out of the Indian team, was a shrewd captain at KKR.

Cut to 2023, Gambhir remains a firebrand who is a TV pundit and also mentor of a franchise where he is the remote-control skipper.

Ditto for Kohli, who remains the skipper of RCB in spirit. On paper though, Faf du Plessis is the captain.

"It is a bit of a complicated relationship between the two. Gautam is not a bad human being but not the easiest person to handle. He had no business to gesture that finger on lips to the crowd at Chinnaswamy, which swears by Virat's name.

"Now here, Virat got a chance to show one-upmanship, and he did. He knows that Gautam has been a staunch critic of his captaincy and even he won't take a step back," a former India player, who shared the dressing room with both, said.