Virat Kohli celebrates a Lucknow wicket with his RCB teammates, Harbhajan Singh. (PTI) Former India off spinner Harbhajan Singh believes the post-match brawl that developed involving Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir and Naveen-ul-Haq after Monday’s Lucknow Super Giants-Royal Challengers Bangalore match in IPL 2023 was always bound to happen.
“This was always on the cards…both the teams were extremely cooked,” Harbhajan said on his YouTube channel.
Furthermore the 42-year-old feels that the controversy took the sheen of the game that saw Bangalore best the hosts by 18 runs in a low-scoring thriller, relating to a ‘similar’ incident that featured him in the first edition of the league.
“The whole mood around the game was spoiled because of this brawl. I’m a player who’s lived through something similar. In 2008, a similar incident had happened between Sreesanth and me. 15 years later, I’m still embarrassed because of it. Back then I’d think, ‘Whatever happened,. it’s alright. Whatever I’ve done is okay.’ But I was wrong. What I did was wrong.”
Harbhajan added, “Look at Virat Kohli today, bahot bada kad hai, you’re a legend. You shouldn’t tussle with anyone.”
The incident seemed to have originated following what appeared to be in-game sledging involving Kohli and Lucknow’s Naveen-ul-Haq when the latter came to bat during the chase. Following RCB’s win in an emotionally-charged contest, the two players had to be separated after a conversation during the handshakes took an ugly turn.
It wasn’t the first heated instance involving Kohli and Gambhir in the IPL either. They had clashed in 2013 during a RCB-KKR match, when Gambhir skippered the latter.
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