Foes turned friends in the ODI World Cup match between India and Afghanistan when former adversaries Virat Kohli and Naveen ul Haq put their past behind to bury the hatchet and shared a heartfelt embrace.
This patch-up comes in the aftermath of Naveen being the target of relentless trolling by Indian fans, resonating with the "Kohli Kohli" chants at the Arun Jaitley stadium in New Delhi on October 11, Wednesday. In a commendable act of maturity, Kohli urged his supporters to refrain from mocking the Afghan player.
Diving deep into the origins of this rivalry, one needs to revisit the IPL 2023 season. The fiery altercation between Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) Kohli, Naveen ul Haq occurred after the game against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). The confrontation didn't end on the field as Naveen continued to express his sentiments via cryptic messages on Instagram, taking subtle jibes at Kohli and the RCB team following their losses.
LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir has had his fair share of disputes with Kohli in the past. Commenting on the recent developments, Gambhir said that every player has a right to take a stand for his team and himself. He lauded Kohli for asking the Delhi crowd to stop trolling Naveen as well.
"That's a great gesture and I hope from here on, in the upcoming matches, in every one, people are reminded of Virat's gesture because every professional cricketer works hard to make it to this level to play for the country, to play in the IPL," Gambhir told broadcasters Jatin Sapru.
"If you can't support anyone, don't criticise him. You have the right to support your favourite player but you don't have any to criticise a player," the former India batter added.
Gambhir also added that it doesn't matter from which country a player comes from but he has every right to take a stand for himself. He, however, said that all rivalries should stay within the ground and players should not make it personal. The southpaw, who was on commentary during the heartfelt moment when Virat Kohli hugged Naveen ul Haq, slammed the fans for trolling Naveen on social media and mocking him with different names.
Talking about the match, India were on a roll as they notched another dominant victory, this time against Afghanistan by eight wickets. India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah's four-wicket feat, restricted the Afghan side to 272/8 in the stipulated 50 overs. The batting duo of Rohit Sharma, who unleashed a blistering 131 off 84 deliveries, paired with Kohli's steady 55, steered India towards victory in just 35 overs.
Post-match, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, lauded the Indian team's performance and said," Was a good win for us, very important to get that momentum at the start of the tournament. It is about absorbing pressure and taking the right decision on the field. There will be a spell from the opposition where you will have to absorb pressure. Leading up to the tournament we had played such games. You have got players with different skill sets in our team. They bring different attributes of the game to the team and it puts you in good positions as a team when you have that. We have got guys who can play fearless cricket with bat and guys who can absorb like the last game".
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