The on-field spat between Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq, which also involved Gautam Gambhir, became one of the biggest talking points of IPL 2023. The incident took place during the IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. The argument began between Kohli and Naveen but it quickly turned into a nasty spat as LSG mentor Gambhir intervened in support of the Afghanistan pacer and both former India teammates locked horns against each other.
Ever-since the incident took place, all the three players who were involved in the spat, have shared their views regarding it. Recently, Naveen shared some inside details about the infamous fight.
"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," Naveen said in a podcast with Zalmi TV.
"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 added.
Both Kohli and Gambhir have an history of sharing heated moments in IPL. Earlier in IPL 2013, Kohli got into a heated argument against Gambhir, who was the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders.
Talking about Gambhir's involvement in his fight against Kohli, Naveen 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 run out. Because of that, he wanted to silence the crowd. He is a passionate guy, and so is Virat," Naveed added.
Later during the ODI World Cup in October, both Kohli and Naveen resolved their differences and were seen hugging each other.