'Masala khatm ho gaya': Virat Kohli on hugging Gautam Gambhir and Naveen-ul-Haq

Kolkata Knight Riders` mentor Gautam Gambhir (L) is congratulated by Royal Challengers Bengaluru`s Virat Kohli (C) after their win during the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru (Pic: AFP)

Star India batter Virat Kohli on Thursday took a dig at trolls who were 'disappointed' with the change in his aggressive on-field behaviour as he recently shared hugs with Afghanistan pacer Naveen-ul-Haq and former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir, with whom he was involved in a heated verbal spat during the Indian Premier League (IPL) last year.

Kohli last year was involved in a verbal spat with both Naveen and Gambhir (then Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) mentor) after Royal Challengers Bengaluru won the IPL match by 18 runs at Lucknow in May. The trigger point of this spat was Gambhir shushing RCB's home crowd at Chinaswammy Stadium after their loss to LSG in their previous encounter and the aggressive way with which Avesh Khan threw his helmet on the ground as a part of his celebration after LSG won the match.

As a result, several memes and social media hashtags took shape, which led to fans looking forward eagerly to Afghanistan's match against India during the ICC Cricket World Cup at Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium last year, hoping to see an aggressive battle of words and skill between Naveen and Kohli. However, Kohli and Naveen hugged during the game and the Afghan pacer expressed his admiration for the Indian legend later on.

Gautam Gambhir is now the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mentor.

During IPL 2024 match between Gambhir's KKR and Virat' RCB recently, spectators were excited about the possibility of another aggressive face-off between these two Indian stars. However, both Gambhir and Kohli were spotted smiling and hugging each other, which came across as a 'dampener' to a lot of people.

Also Read: MI wary of RCB's run-machine Kohli

During a recent social event from which some viral clips have circulated, Kohli poked fun at these internet fans, saying that they were disappointed at how 'softened' he had become as they could not get any more "masala" for their social media posts/news.

"Log bohot disappointed hog aye hain mere behavior se. Naveen ke saath maine jhappi daal li, us din Gauti bhai ne aake mereko jhappi daal di. Matlab, tumhara masala khatam ho gaya to boohoo kar rahe ho. Abey bache thodi na hain yaar (People are very disappointed with my behavior. I hugged Naveen, and then the other day Gauti bhai [Gautam Gambhir] hugged me. Now that they don't have anything juicy, they've started booing. We are not kids!)," he said.

Kohli also lavished praises on Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, reflecting on his journey with the 'Hitman' over the years. He also lauded him for his captaincy.

"We (I and Rohit Sharma) played together in last 15-16 years. It has been amazing journey we have shared together. We never thought that we would be left with 2-3 senior players. It has been great journey together," he said.

"I have seen Rohit Sharma's growth as a player and what Rohit Sharma has done in his career - now He is leading the Indian team, it has been amazing," he added.

Meanwhile, both he and Rohit will be locking horns against each other as RCB will be taking on Mumbai Indians (MI) at Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.

Kohli is the leading run-scorer in the IPL 2024, scoring 316 runs in five matches at an average of 105.33 and a strike rate of over 146, with a century and two fifties. His best score is 113'.

While MI opened their account after three losses with a win over Delhi Capitals (DC), RCB aims to overcome a three-match losing streak, succumbing to Rajasthan Royals (RR) in their last encounter. Virat's team, RCB, is off to a poor start in the IPL this year, having won only one out of their five matches so far.

(With agency inputs)