Players of the same country who had a fight

Cricket once upon a time being referred to as a ‘Gentleman’s game’ is no longer a game of gentle and soft-spoken people. When two competitive teams make way to the field and engage in a battle, the combinations of circumstances and heat of the moment may result in temper to raise high.

When we talk about the good old days there was hardly any sort of a fight. Players were not swaying at each other. On the contrary, if we talk about the current crop of players they do not mind sledging. Even they can be seen swaying at each other. The main objective nowadays is to win at any cost.

We have often seen players from different countries get involved in ugly spats with each other during cricket matches. However, we have hardly seen or heard of ugly spats between players of the same country. There have been instances where best of friends who donned same national jersey have turned into worst of foes. These kinds of incidents do make headlines.

Here we bring you 5 such cases where players of the same country had a fight with each other.

Virat Kohli vs Gautam Gambhir (India)

This incident took place in the 2013 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Things got ugly in the encounter between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) when a verbal duel between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir took place right in the middle. Virat Kohli was caught at the sweeper cover and Gambhir along with other players converged in the middle to celebrate.

After an apparent exchange of words between the two, Gambhir started approaching towards Virat with anger. Virat stayed put at short cover instead of walking back. It was the senior Delhi player Rajat Bhatia who had to intervene in order to stop them from getting into a scuffle. Both of them downplayed the event after the end of the match. However, to date, they are not the best of friends.

Ahmad Shahzad vs Wahab Riaz (Pakistan)

There was no love lost between Ahmed Shahzad and Wahab Riaz after the latter dismissed him during a PSL match between Quetta Gladiators and Peshawar Zalmi. After knocking down his stumps with a slower one, Riaz approached towards Shahzad and said a few words.

Teammates and umpires came running towards them as Riaz even pushed Shahzad and kept saying a few words. This was a reaction to Shahzad raising his bat at Wahab after hitting a huge six off the previous delivery. Both the cricketers were fined heavily by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for their on-field behavior.

Ambati Rayadu vs Harbhajan Singh (India)

This incident took place in a match between Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants in IPL 2016. This included the veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and the middle-order batsman Ambati Rayadu. Batting for Pune, Saurabh Tiwari pulled a short one from Bhajji towards the mid-wicket region. Rayadu coming in from deep mid-wicket put in a dive and tried to scoop the ball towards Tim Southee.

The ball, however, made its way to the boundary. Bhajji was visibly not happy with the effort made by Rayadu. Rayadu, however, was not in a mood to listen and yelled back at his senior teammate. Both of them started walking towards each other. Bhajji, being a senior tried to calm him by putting his arm on Ambati Rayudu shoulder but all went in vain as Rayadu pulled away showing his displeasure.

Both of them calmed down and made peace at the end of the innings. Rayadu even made an appearance in a chat show “Bhajji Blast” hosted by the Turbanator himself.

Suresh Raina vs Ravindra Jadeja (India)

Suresh Raina. being one of best fielders in India had misjudged a couple of catches against the Windies in a tri-series involving Sri Lanka as the third team in the 2013-14 season. The incident took place when a pumped up Jadeja, after dismissing the last man Sunil Narine, walked up to Raina and had a cold exchange of words with him.

Reportedly, Jadeja took a jibe at Suresh Raina losing his captaincy to a much younger Virat Kohli and he also made remarks on his failed fielding attempts. This did not go well with the left-hander from UP and the due almost had a physical fight until they were separated by other teammates.

The tension died down as the match got over and the two walked off the field together. At present both the players play for the same IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and have no problems with each other.

Ravindra Jadeja and Ishant Sharma (India)

The last incident also features Jadeja but this time with the tall lanky pacer Ishant Sharma. This incident happened in India’s tour down under in 2018. On the fourth day of the Perth test both the players were seen having a heated discussion on the field during the drinks break.

There is no clear explanation about the rift. But according to sources Ishant was not happy with the fielding position of Jadeja, who was fielding as a substitute. They were constantly pointing fingers at each other during the break and eventually the discussion got heated and they came face to face. It was Kuldeep Yadav and Mohd Shami who managed to separate the duo.

They both performed very well in the remaining Tests of the series and played a vital role in India winning the Test series in Australia for the first time by a margin of 2-1.

~Written by Anshul Arora

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