Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir are two excellent Delhi and India batsmen. They are also firebrand cricketers who have often clashed with each other on the field of play raising question-marks over what’s the problem between the two.
In this piece we look at the various feuds between Kohli and Gambhir and what caused them.
Kohli-Gambhir Spat I – IPL 2013
The first of the Kohli-Gambhir spats came at the 2013 Indian Premier League when the two led their respective sides – Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders in a match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Kohli had just gotten out for 35 in response to KKR’s 154/8 and Gambhir looked to have spoken out at that moment.
Not liking what he heard, Kohli turned back to retaliate and Gambhir came face to face with the RCB captain in the heat of the moment. Rajat Bhatia, who was with the Knight Riders at that time, was forced to intervene between the two and drag them away before things got out of hand.
And things could have gotten to an ugly level given what would transpire between them again.
Kohli-Gambhir Spat II – IPL 2016
The IPL 2016 brought Kohli and Gambhir for the second iteration of their on-field spats.
This time around, it was due to Gambhir’s errant throw at the non-striker’s end despite Kohli being back in his crease. This did not go down too well with Kohli who got involved in another heated fracas with Gambhir.
Gambhir would later go on to congratulate Sunrisers Hyderabad for winning the IPL that season after beating the Royal Challengers Bangalore but more vitally call them “nice guys” in his congratulatory message.
He said:
“Congratulations SunRisers on winning IPL. Nice guys DO finish first. Well done. Bowler win u cricket matches be it any format.”
Fans interpreted the ‘nice guy’ comment as an indirect dig at Kohli. The other thing Gambhir did seem to point was with this was that Bangalore relied heavily on their batting which was the reason behind their defeat.
Kohli-Gambhir Spat III – IPL 2023
The third time that Kohli and Gambhir got into a verbal argument was at the 2023 Indian Premier League during a match between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants.
Kohli was continuing to feature for RCB while Gambhir had become the global mentor of the Lucknow side. So yep, while Kohli was still a player, Gambhir had assumed coaching duties having retired from the game a while back.
That did not prevent the two from getting into an argument – and a big one at that, which also led to both getting fined 100% of their match fee.
It started on the field between Kohli and Afghan seamer Naveen-ul-Haq who was representing Lucknow Super Giants with the two involved in a verbal joust throughout the match.
At the end of the game, things got worse when Naveen alleged that Kohli pulled his hand hard while the two teams were shaking hands, leading to the involvement of Gambhir who joined the fray as well.
Gambhir would go on to pull his own team’s batter Kyle Mayers away while he was having a conversation with Kohli and would later get involved in a finger-pointing incident with the former RCB skipper.
Views off the Field
In Gambhir’s role as a guest on various cricketing shows with the host broadcasters of tournaments like the IPL and ICC events, he has often taken a jibe at those playing for landmarks.
On one of the occasions he took a jibe at the show host, Mayanti Langer, for overplaying Virat Kohli’s statistics in a team game.
When Mayanti spoke about Rohit Sharma’s role in leading India during the 2023 World Cup, Gambhir acknowledged she was finally speaking about a player who had done an excellent job at the tournament instead of focussing on individual landmarks.
Other than that, in that very tournament, he was also critical about the need to play for a landmark after Kohli refused singles in their win over Bangladesh in Pune.
Gambhir has praised Kohli’s transition in T20I cricket though, noting that very few players can play the role of an attacker and an anchor in T20 cricket and that’s what Kohli had done. This was after his match-winning innings against Pakistan at the 2022 T20 World Cup.
The Good – Kohli-Gambhir Partnerships
Have Kohli and Gambhir been involved in century-run partnerships in any of the formats?
Kohli and Gambhir might have had a chequered history given the nature of their spats but they have also done well in partnerships while playing for India.
While the Kohli-Gambhir partnership has never seen a 50-run stand in Tests, they have done far better in white ball cricket. They were involved in three 50-run stands in T20I cricket. Two of those, against England in the 2012 T20 World Cup and in a series against Australia that very season led to Indian victories.
They have reserved their best for ODIs though.
The duo has had three 200-plus run partnerships in ODI cricket, all of which resulted in victories for India.
The first of these came at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata in 2009 where the pair added 224 runs for the third wicket as India easily chased down Sri Lanka’s 315. Interestingly, to give you an idea how things weren’t always this bad between the two, Gambhir had actually passed on his man-of-the-match award he won in this game to Kohli for his fine performance.
In 2011, India clashed with England Kohli and Gambhir added 209 for the third wicket against England this time to win by eight wickets and more than 13 overs to spare.
Then in the 2012 Asia Cup, both scored centuries in India’s 304/3 against Sri Lanka which helped them win the match by 50 runs.
Gambhir and Kohli have also been involved in four other century-run partnerships in ODI cricket.
They were also involved in a crucial, 83-run stand for the third wicket against Sri Lanka in the 2011 World Cup final that helped them win the tournament.
Photo Credit: Blnguyen
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