On 5 May, Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli, both notorious for their unfiltered opinions and mutual disdain, came to blows during IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants. The incident occurred after Kohli allegedly abused Mayers and gave him a send-off, which prompted Gambhir to step in and take Mayers away. Kohli then told Gambhir to stay away from the matter, to which Gambhir replied that his players are like his family and he won’t tolerate anyone abusing them. The incident was captured on video and shared widely on social media.

In an interview with News18, Gambhir spoke about his fight with Kohli and relationship MS Dhoni.

“See normally I don’t explain my relationships,” Gambhir told News18.

“This question has been asked to me regarding MS Dhoni too – How is my relation with MS Dhoni? I share the same relation with MS Dhoni as it’s with Virat Kohli,” he added

“My fight with Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni or any other player isn’t personal. My fight is limited to the field. We both want to win. And it should stay on the field,” former India opener said.

Meanwhile, India was defeated in the World Test Championship (WTC) final on Sunday and Australia secured a 209-run victory to be crowned test cricket’s world champions.

India, who lost the inaugural WTC final to New Zealand in 2021, put up scores of 296 and 234 in their two innings but those figures fell far short of what was required to deliver a first global title since the 50-overs Champions Trophy in 2013.

Former captain Sunil Gavaskar lashed out at the “ridiculous” shot selections by the frontline batters, including Virat Kohli, who fell for 49 on Sunday chasing a wide ball.

“It was a bad shot … You should ask Kohli what shot he played,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.

“To win the match, you needed a long innings, a century-plus innings but how are you going to do that if you play a shot so far outside the off-stump?”

Updated: 12 Jun 2023, 12:33 PM IST