‘Seemed like he was trying to do something out of jealousy’ - Ahmed Shehzad makes scathing remark over Kohli-Gambhir spat

The recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 was home to many controversies. However, one of the biggest ones was the verbal altercation between Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq/Gautam Gambhir.

Match 43 of the IPL 2023 was when Lucknow Super Giants hosted Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Ekana Sports City Stadium. However, the biggest highlight of the game was when Kohli and Gambhir were captured in a heated argument. The altercation originated from a verbal spat between Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq, and it further escalated when Gambhir came into the picture.

Revisiting the infamous incident, Pakistan batter Ahmed Shehzad came forward to give his take on the same. The 31-year-old came to Kohli’s defence and opined that Gambhir did what he did out of jealousy and that he was just looking to stir up more controversy with Kohli.

"As a viewer, as a sportsman, this hurt my feelings a lot. It seemed like Gautam Gambhir was trying to do something out of jealousy. It looked like he was waiting for something to happen so that he can create a controversy with Virat," Shehzad said on the Nadir Ali podcast.

It was really sad to see such an episode: Shehzad

Furthermore, Shehzad also opined that he was saddened to see such an episode on a cricket pitch and was unable to find any reason why Gambhir would do such a thing to the biggest player of the Indian team.

"It was really sad to see such an episode. I can understand that Kohli had a fight with the player from Afghanistan (Naveen-ul-Haq) because such things happen in the heat of the moment. But I did not understand why Gautam Gambhir showed such gestures towards the biggest player in his own country, Kohli," Shehzad added.

Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir, and Naveen-ul-Haq were all slapped with hefty fines after the incident. Where Kohli and Gambhir were fined 100 percent of their match fees, Naveen was handed a 50 percent fine.