Controversy erupted in the ongoing IPL 2023 when Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir were spotted having a verbal encounter after Royal Challengers Bangalore secured a victory over Lucknow Super Giants. As a result, both cricketers have been fined heavily by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Ever since the incident transpired, a lot of former cricketers have commented on the same. Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag also expressed his views as he said, "I switched off the TV once the match got over. I had no idea about what happened after the match. The next day when I woke up, I saw a lot of chaos on social media. What happened wasn't right. The loser should quietly accept defeat and walk away and the winning team should go out celebrating. Why do they need to say anything to each other? I always say one thing, that these guys are icons of the country. If they do or say anything, millions of kids follow them and probably think 'If my icon has done this, I would too'. So if they keep these things in mind, they would limit such incidents”.
"If the BCCI decides to ban anyone, then maybe such incidents will happen rarely or not take place at all. Such incidents have happened several times in the past so it's better to do whatever you want to inside the controlled environment of the dressing room. When you're on the ground, these things don't look nice. My own kids can lip-read and they very well understand Ben Stokes. So that is when I feel bad. If you're saying such things, if my kids can read it, others can too, and tomorrow they will think that if they (Kohli and Gambhir) can say it, so can I," he told on Cricbuzz.
However, Gautam and Virat came from Delhi and they have played a lot of cricket together. Earlier their relationship was not as bad in the beginning as once Gautam Gambhir gave away his man of the match award to Virat Kohli, who scored his maiden ton for India and helped India win the match by seven wickets against Sri Lanka in an ODI match at the Eden Gardens.