Bengaluru, March 29: They played from the same state team for years together. They were core team members for Team India for long. They even had jointly won the 20211 ODI World Cup for India.
Although, they had jointly scripted several wins for Delhi men's cricket team and Team India as well, but they often crossed swords, lost tempers and had war of words during Indian Premier League (IPL) matches
Well, Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir played enough cricket together for Delhi and India. As premier batters, the two stalwarts of Indian team and Delhi as well, were not known for any animosity between them for years.
But the IPL history reveals something interesting. Both Gambhir and Kohli have not been best of friends when they faced each other during IPL.
The last instance that immediately reminds of their rivalry is in 2023, when Gambhir was the mentor of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) star Kohli played against LSG. The both did have a showdown, and the incident surely was widely discussed.
Perhaps realising their strained relationships in the IPL, former Team India pacer Varun Aaron had remarked that Gambhir's presence in Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)'s dugout may fire up Kohli to perform better.
Well, with the high-octane clash between Royal RCB and KKR at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium set to create a lot of interest on Friday evening, Aaron thinks talismanic batter Kohli will just have to look at the visitors’ dugout, which has Gambhir as mentor, to be fired up in the match.
Worth mentioning that Kohli made a match-winning 77 off 49 balls in RCB’s win over Punjab Kings (PBKS) at their home ground earlier this week this season.
Understandably, Aaron’s comments come after Kohli and Gambhir had a heated clash in IPL 2023 when the latter was the mentor of LSG, which led to both being fined 100% of their respective match fee.
“I'm looking forward to the match up outside the boundary line. Gautam Gambhir is going to be at the boundary line right beside the RCB dugout, don't know what's going to happen there, I think, you know how Virat is, he likes to have some fire all the time, and if he just looks at the KKR dugout, he's just going to be fired up," said Aaron to TV broadcasters Star Sports.
Steve Smith, the Australian batter currently working as a pundit in the tournament, is also excited about the RCB-KKR face-off. "Yeah, that's a nice battle to look for. The rivalry is not going to be any different. I'm looking forward to it. Virat was outstanding last game, he showed some real ominous signs, and I'm looking forward to that contest tomorrow (at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium)." (With IANS support)
