Afghanistan fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq has opened up on his verbal exchange with Virat Kohli. In IPL 2023, Naveen-ul-Haq was involved in a verbal battle with Virat Kohli while he was batting with Amit Mishra.
After Royal Challengers Bengaluru won that game against Lucknow Super Giants, the two exchanged more words while performing the customary handshake. However, Naveen has revealed that it all finished for once and all after India’s ODI World Cup 2023 match against Afghanistan.
Speaking in a video uploaded by Texas Super Kings, Naveen-ul-Haq said, “It was in the heat of the moment. He was representing his franchise, I was playing for my franchise, If it is for my franchise or for my country, I will give it all. I won’t back down. At the end of the day we are all players and some of us are close friends, some of us are colleagues. We just brush it out and there’s nothing personal. In the ODI World Cup, it finished once and for all.”
The Afghan pacer said that the social media keeps giving importance to the altercation for their engagement despite the duo moving on from the incident.
However, veteran Indian leg-spinner Amit Mishra has a different opinion as he feels Naveen-ul-Haq might never respect Virat Kohli and it doesn’t send a good message to the young generation.
Amit Mishra said on Shubhankar Mishra podcast, “For social media, it all seemed to be over between them. But do you think Naveen will respect Kohli ever again? What about the youngsters who saw the incident where a big star was abusing others.”
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli announced his retirement from T20Is after India won the T20 World Cup 2024. Kohli played a match-winning knock of 76 runs off 59 balls in the all-important final against South Africa as India registered a seven-run victory.
