Former India player Gautam Gambhir asked fans to stop trolling and making fun of cricketers both on the ground as well as on social media after Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq ended their spat with a warm gesture as well. India played against Afghanistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Wednesday, October 11.

However, the build-up to the match was the hype around the Kohli-Naveen clash after both were involved in an ugly spat during the Indian Premier League (IPL) earlier this year. And, both of them showed great maturity and decided to end that during the match on Wednesday. During India’s chase, they exchanged a handshake and even patted each other on the back as well. Meanwhile, Gambhir, who also got involved in the spat during IPL, was on commentary when Kohli and Naveen did that as well.

Sharing his thoughts on the same, he added: “You fight on the field, not off the field. Every player has the right to fight for his team, fight for respect, and fight to win. It doesn’t matter which country you belong to or how good of a player you are. The good thing was when we saw Virat Kohli and Naveen Ul Haq in between the overs, we can see that the fight has ended.”

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Giving a stern message to fans, he shared: “I would also want to tell the crowd and fans that any player in the ground or on social media, shouldn’t be trolled or made fun of. You are passionate when you represent your team. It was a huge thing for Naveen to play in IPL for the first time coming from Afghanistan.”

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli remained unbeaten on 55 off 56 balls as Team India chased down 273 in 35 overs with eight wickets to spare. The Indian team then registered their second win as well.

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“He said we are done with that, and I said yes” – Naveen-ul-Haq on interaction with Virat Kohli

While speaking after the India-Afghanistan match, speedster Naveen-ul-Haq opined on his interaction with Kohli and also the controversial incident between the two during IPL 2023. He added things went out of hand by people on the outside as well.

“He [Kohli] is a nice guy, a good player, and we shook hands. It’s always in the ground; it was nothing outside the ground. People make it big. They need that stuff for their followers. He said we are done with that, and I said yes, we are done with it. We shook hands and hugged,” he concluded.