IPL 2023: Kohli vs Gambhir - Old baggages lead to another round of 'juvenile' bust-up

IPL 2023: Social media discusses the fierce bust-up between RCB's Virat Kohli and LSG's Gautam Gambhir. Meanwhile, we look at the old baggage that leads to this 'juvenile' rivalry.

The ugly bust-up between Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli was quintessentially Delhi and waiting to happen. Both don't believe in pulling punches and have been carrying their baggage of mutual dislike for each other. During their latest face-off, there was liberal use of north Indian profanity, which sounds similar to the name of English cricketer 'Ben Stokes'.

Opinions are divided among those who were present after the Indian Premier League (IPL) game between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Monday night when the altercation took place between the two ICC World Cup-winning players. Some found it juvenile, others liked the spice and the idea of intense rivalry, while the firm believers of the 'Gentlemen's Game' thought it could have been avoided.

So, what happened in Lucknow on Monday night? An eyewitness in one of the team dug-outs gave a lowdown of events to PTI. "You saw on TV that Mayers and Virat were walking side by side for a few metres post-match. Mayers asked Kohli why he was constantly abusing them, and Virat, in turn, questioned why he was [Mayers] 'staring' at him. Before that, [Amit] Mishra complained to the umpire about Virat constantly abusing Naveen (ul-Haq), a No. 10 batter," he said.

"Gautam, sensing that things could turn ugly, pulled Mayers and told him not to have a conversation when Virat commented. The heated exchange that followed seemed a bit juvenile. Gautam asked, 'Kya bol raha hain, bol' [What were you saying?], and Virat replied, 'Maine aapko kuch bola hi naahin, aap kyon ghus rahein ho' [Why are you coming in between when I haven't told you anything]," the witness continued.

"Gautam responded, 'Tuney agar mere player ko bola hai, matlab tune meri family ko gaali diya hai. [You abused my player, and that's like abusing my family] and Virat's reply was, 'Toh aap apne family ko sambhal ke rakhiye'. [Then you take care of your family]. Gambhir's final reply before they were separated was, 'Toh ab tu mujhe sikhayega...' [So, now I have to learn from you...]," he further stated.

The eyewitness said that while it was tense and a blow away from turning into a free-for-all, it all seemed a bit juvenile at both ends. It was a 'deja vu' moment for everyone who had seen the duo nearly come to blows in 2013 when former two-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) was playing RCB.

Kohli was then the superstar-in-the-making, and Gambhir, out of the Indian team, was a wise captain at KKR. Cut to 2023, Gambhir remains a firebrand who is a TV pundit and mentor of a franchise where he is the remote-control skipper—Ditto for Kohli, who remains the skipper of RCB in spirit. On paper, though, Faf du Plessis is the captain.

"It is a complicated relationship between the two. Gautam is a good human being but not the easiest person to handle. He had no business to gesture that finger on lips to the crowd at Chinnaswamy, which swears by Virat's name. Here, Virat got a chance to show one-upmanship, and he did. He knows that Gautam has been a staunch critic of his captaincy, and even he won't take a step back," a former India player, who shared the dressing room with both, said.

Kohli said in an RCB video, "You got to take it. Otherwise, don't give it." Both players have been fined their total match fees, although they have yet to learn how the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) computes a mentor's penalty. It also didn't help that Kohli has 55.4 million followers on Twitter alone, while the BJP Parliamentarian is no light, with 12.5 million followers of his own.

The people in their close quarters are either trying to lionise them or create a false narrative like one from RCB's social media content team asking regular skipper du Plessis about Kohli's "aggression", which bordered on boorishness. It is the same kind of aggression the former India skipper admitted felt "fake".

But, the RCB social media team, in trying to justify it, is making themselves look more silly. On the other hand, Gambhir's political secretary Gaurav Arora from his Twitter handle @gauravbir786, wrote: "Asking your trolls to abuse Gautam Gambhir's daughters is an unacceptable low. Matches will come and go. Show some class, Kohli!" Ultimately, it was another uncalled-for bust-up and a rivalry from which no one came out smelling roses.