New Delhi: At a time when debated and discussions regarding the on and off field heated arguments between Indian and England players is fresh, India vs England 3rd Test got off to a fiery start after cricketer-turned-commentators Nasser Hussain and Sunil Gavaskar were indulged in a heated debate during the pre-match show.


Things turned a little spicier ahead of Ind vs Eng 3rd Test toss when Gavaskar asked Hussain to elaborate on a sentence he had written in his article in the Daily Mail about Virat Kohli-led Indian team not being bullied like previous generations.


“You said this India will not be bullied as perhaps the previous generations would be. (I) Belonging to previous generation, could you perhaps enlighten which generation? And what is the exact meaning of bully?” Gavaskar asked Hussain.

“I just think, the Indian side under the aggression of the past, would have said ‘no no no’. But what Kohli has done is to make them go doubly hard. I saw a little bit of that in Sourav Ganguly’s side and he started that, Virat is continuing with it. Even when Virat was not there, Ajinkya really went hard at the Australians. I just don’t think you want to wake this Indian side up,” Hussain replied.


“But when you say previous generations were bullied, I don’t think so. I’d be very upset if my generation was being talked about as being bullied. If you have a look at the record, in 1971 we won, that was my first tour in England. 1974, we had internal problems so we lost 3-0. 1979, we lost 1-0, it could have been 1-1 if we chased down 438 at the Oval. 1982 we again lost 1-0. In 1986 we won 2-0, we could have won it 3-0. So, I don’t think my generation we were bullied. I don’t think aggression means you have always got to be at the face of the opposition. You can show passion, you can show your commitment towards your team without yelling after each fall of wicket,” Gavaskar said.

“I for one, quite like the way Kohli leads this side. That’s what I wanted to say. That team talk in which he said ‘let’s unleash fire on this English side’ and you could see the fire that they unleashed,” Hussain said, still dodging Gavaskar’s question.

“There is no argument in that. The question is saying that the previous generations were bullied. I don’t think this is right,” Gavaskar added.