The on-field spat between Royal Challengers Bangalore batter Virat Kohli and Lucknow Super Giants pacer Naveen-ul-Haq became one of the major highlights of IPL 2023. Both the players got indulged got into a heated exchange during their IPL match on May 1 in Lucknow. The incident snowballed into a massive controversy as both cricketers took their altercation to the next level in the customary post match handshake and LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir was too seen fuming on the field. However, all the tension between the two players came to an end when they faced each other during the ODI World Cup 2023 match between India and Afghanistan in October in Delhi.
Virat and Naveen were seen hugging each other and sorting out their differences. This turned out to be memorable moment for all the fans.
Recently, Naveen opened up about that day and revealed how both of them met and resolved the issues between them during the match.
“Rohit bhai ka wicket gira aur drinks break hua. Drinks break khatam ho ke mai jaa raha tha long-on par fielding karne. So I was about to pass (Kohli), and hamara ek eye contact hua, Virat ne bola ki ‘let's finish it', toh maine bola 'Ya, let's finish it.' Unke dil mein kuch nahi tha, mere dil mein bhi unke liye obviously kuch nahi tha. Jo hua tha ground mein hua tha. I respect him as a player. Vo jitna kar chuke hai aur jitna kar rahe hai abhi, so we all have to appreciate and understand that. Unhone bola, let's finish it. We laughed about it. We hugged, and we moved on. (Rohit got dismissed and we had a drinks break. After that I was going towards the long-on and when I saw Kohli, we had an eye contact. He said 'let's finish it', so, I said, ' Ya, let's finish it.' Neither he had nothing in his heart, nor did I.)" said Naveen in a video posted by LSG on YouTube.
“He said that now, after this, you won't hear my name or something. You will only get support from the crowd. I said yes. After that, he wanted to tell the crowd or signal the crowd to not chant my name. So that was it,” he added.
Recently, LSG announced their retention list ahead of the mini auctions for IPL 2024 and the franchise has retained Naveen for the upcoming season.
Following the ODI World Cup 2023, pacer Naveen has retired from the format, with only 15 matches and 22 wickets to his name.