Gambhir Vs Sreesanth emerged as the biggest subplot of Legends League Cricket 2023 Eliminator between India Capitals and Gujarat Giants in Surat on Wednesday. Not new to on-field controversies, the two former Indian cricketers successfully managed to push on with their verbal brawl to social media platforms this morning.
Advertisement
Leading Capitals, Gautam Gambhir‘s match-winning half-century played a key role in them registering a 12-run victory in a high-scoring encounter at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium to qualify for Qualifier 2. However, fans in Surat and those following the competition from around the world became beneficiaries to more entertainment.
Gambhir Vs Sreesanth Fight: What Really Happened During LLC 2023 Match In Surat?
Sharing the new ball with Rayad Emrit, Sreesanth started the match with a wide ball after Giants captain Parthiv Patel won the toss and chose to field. Gambhir, who didn’t get to face a ball in the first over, hit the first legal ball he faced for a six over deep mid-wicket. An archetype walk down the track was followed by the left-handed batter successfully lifting the right-arm bowler over the in-field.
Although not using his feet on the following ball, Gambhir’s limited footwork was enough to generate optimum timing as he casually drove Sreesanth down the ground for a boundary.
Sreesanth, who returned to bowling over the wicket on the next ball, managed to bowl a couple of dot deliveries before clearly chirping a word or two at someone who led him twice in ODIs 13 years ago. Gambhir, who didn’t appear to have said anything in response at the time, was astonishingly miffed at the bowler’s gesture.
Having played more than half of his international matches across formats with Gambhir also in the Indian Playing XI, Sreesanth later accused “fighter” Gambhir of disrespecting seniors. Claiming to have not provoked him, the 40-year old refrained from revealing what Gambhir called him in the viral video he recorded at the time of the post-match presentation ceremony yesterday.
Sreesanth, however, took to social media platform Instagram on Thursday morning to disclose that Gambhir called him “F**k off, fixer” while batting. As per Sreesanth, Gambhir kept on saying the same thing again and again even after the two on-field umpires’ intervention. That said, as can be seen in the aforementioned video, even Sreesanth is oozing a lot of aggression in the umpires’ presence.
Bhuvneshwari Kumari, Sreesanth’s wife, also posted an Instagram story late last night to express shock at her husband’s former teammate “stooping to this level”.
Gautam Gambhir Reacts to Sreesanth’s Claim
Gambhir, meanwhile, didn’t provide any clarification via a video but uploaded a post on X (formerly Twitter) in an attempt to say a lot within a few words.
“Smile when the world is all about attention!,” Gambhir wrote on X to receive validation from former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan within an hour.
If truth be told, one is in no position to pass any sort of judgement in this Gambhir vs Sreesanth altercation. Frankly speaking, Sreesanth provoking Gambhir to receive a response from him is pretty much normal and understandable presuming all of it was based on whatever happened on the first three deliveries of the second over.
Assuming Gambhir said what Sreesanth has claimed, it would’ve been better had he not uttered those words considering how Sreesanth has served his sentence. Sreesanth, on the other hand, should’ve also avoided a desperate attempt of gaining sympathy by unnecessarily taking names of Indian legends namely Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli to prove his point last night.
