"Gautam Gambhir cannot digest that Virat Kohli has earned more respect than what he did in his entire career" - Ahmed Shehzad
Ahmed Shehzad has slammed Gautam Gambhir for misbehaving with Virat Kohli after an IPL 2023 match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Lucknow.
Many fans would remember that RCB's star player Kohli had a war of words with LSG mentor Gambhir after Bangalore won a close game at the Bharat Ratna Shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium.
It is pertinent to note that back in 2009, Gambhir had given away his Man of the Match award to Virat Kohli after a match against Sri Lanka when Kohli scored his maiden ODI ton. Ahmed Shehzad mentioned that during an appearance on the Nadir Ali podcast, saying:
"I saw a clip, someone sent me the other day, where Gautam Gambhir said he gave his Man of the Match award to Virat Kohli. Did Virat Kohli tell you to give him Man of the Match? Or you gave the award to him as a compensation for the misbehavior with him after that match. Things don't work like this."
The Pakistan opener further highlighted that Virat Kohli has achieved a lot on the cricket field and earned the respect of the entire universe. Opining that Gambhir was jealous of Kohli, he continued:
"It looks like Gautam Gambhir cannot digest that Virat Kohli has earned more respect than what he did in his entire career. He cannot digest the fact that Kohli has earned more respect that too at a young age."
"Just imagine" - Ahmed Shehzad asks Gautam Gambhir if he would do the same thing had Sachin Tendulkar been in place of Virat Kohli
During the aforementioned match, Kohli first got into a war of words with LSG's pacer Naveen-ul-Haq. After the match ended, Gautam Gambhir had a heated chat with Kohli.
Ahmed Shehzad further gave a hypothetical scenario and asked Gautam Gambhir whether he would react in the same way had Naveen sledged someone like Sachin Tendulkar.
"Just imagine, had Naveen-ul-Haq sledged Sachin Tendulkar in IPL the way he sledged Virat, would Gambhir reply in the same way? So, you know, (we) consider Virat as this generation's king. He has 75 hundreds. You may not think it is a big achievement, but we are cricket lovers. We love players irrespective of country and religion. So he deserves respect," Shehzad said.
Ahmed Shehzad has played cricket against both Virat Kohli and Gambhir in the past. He is currently aiming to make a comeback to the Pakistan cricket team.