‘The sledging came from two guys’ – Naveen-ul-Haq talks about infamous LSG vs RCB IPL 2023 match which saw fight between him, Virat Kohli, and Gautam Gambhir

Naveen-ul-Haq opened up on the infamous fight that broke out between RCB and LSG in the IPL 2023. In a recent interview, the Afghanistan pacer shed light on the events that led to the fight between RCB and LSG. Naveen felt that the reason for the fight was the result of the match between the two sides in Bengaluru, where there was a thriller.

Naveen claimed that the match in Bengaluru was intense and had a lot of fun elements. He said that the match ended with a bad gesture from Avesh Khan where the lower-order batter was seen throwing his helmet in frustration after being able to see the team home. The Afghanistan pacer was of the opinion that the incident did not sit well with RCB and Virat.

Naveen touched upon the gesture of Gambhir after the match. The star pacer felt that the gesture of Gambhir came as Harshal Patel tried to mankad the non-striker and failed to do so. In the process, the RCB pacer was able to drag the frustration of the LSG players. In Naveen’s view, the act from Harshal did not abide by the sportsmanship spirit and led to the gesture from Gambhir, whom he felt got ‘carried away’.

‘The sledging came from two guys – Kohli and Mohammed Siraj’ – Naveen-ul-Haq

Naveen then touched upon the match in Lucknow. He added that RCB started to sledge in the 2nd game. The young pacer felt that when he came out to bat in the middle, the game was nearly done and dusted. Naveen claimed that he did not expect to get sledged. The Afghanistan pacer added that since the provocation came from RCB, he could not hold back and replied to it.

Naveen claimed that two players sledged from RCB – Virat and Mohammad Siraj. “So, I didn’t expect that I would be sledged. But when it happened, like I said, when someone starts, I can’t hold back. After the game, things continued during the handshake too. The sledging came from two guys – Kohli and Mohammad Siraj,” said Naveen in the interview.