Virat Kohli telling Delhi crowd not to troll Naveen a great gesture, says Gambhir after Ind-Afg CWC '23 tie

India locked horns with Afghanistan in match 9 of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 on Wednesday (Oct 11) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. Rohit Sharma-led India thrashed the Afghans by eight wickets, with 15 overs to spare, in pursuit of 273. Riding on captain Rohit's 131 and Virat Kohli's 55 not out, India didn't break a sweat to complete the run-chase in style. During the match, Virat and Afghanistan pacer Naveen-ul-Haq also came face-to-face following their ugly spat during Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) face-off of IPL 2023 in Lucknow.

Ever since Naveen returned to India for the ODI World Cup, chants of "Kohli Kohli" have followed him on the field by the Indian fans. When he came out to bat in the India-Afghanistan game, the crowd started chanting Kohli's name. The same happened during the Indian run-chase as well when the former Indian skipper took matters into his own hands and gestured to the crowd to stop the chants.

The two buried their hatchet with a warm hug, which received rousing applause from the Delhi crowd. Gautam Gambhir -- former Indian opener and LSG mentor who is on commentary duty in CWC 2023 --lauded Kohli for his gesture. Talking to Jatin Sapru, he said on air,"That's a great gesture and I hope from here on, in the upcoming matches, in every one, people are reminded of Virat's gesture because every professional cricketer works hard to make it to this level to play for the country, to play in the IPL."

"If you can't support anyone, don't criticise him. You have the right to support your favourite player but you don't have any to criticise a player," the former batter further opined.

Gambhir added, "The most important thing is the way the crowd reacted, it should have behaved in a more sensible way because no one knew from this crowd what happened between those two on that day. The two players, and their team management only knew. I hope the crowds in the coming days behave better, and offer better support. People are coming to play in our country, and as hosts, we can become better brand ambassadors. The players coming here should take only good memories."

Gambhir was serving as Lucknow's mentor during Kohli-Naveen's spat in the LSG-RCB game in early May. He also got into aheated argument with Kohli, which made heads turn back then. However, Kohli-Naveen's warm hug has finally put an end to the whole episode.

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