“I yelled at him”: When Sunil Gavaskar had a heated exchange with Kapil Dev during India-Pakistan match in 1979

Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar are two of the biggest stalwarts to play cricket for the Indian cricket team. Both of them were star players of the side, and during their tenure, there were a lot of news and rumours about the rifts between these two legends of the game.

Both of them have denied any kind of rift, and Kapil has sometimes said that the selection committee played a part in degrading the relationship between both players. In 1984, both of them engaged in a controversy where Kapil openly said that Gavaskar dropped him for the Playing XI.

Gavaskar has always said that he and Kapil shared a good bond, but once he got very angry with Kapil. Even on the 1984 controversy, Sunil said that he did not play any part in dropping Kapil as to why would he drop his biggest match winner as captain.

When Sunil Gavaskar had a heated exchange with Kapil Dev

Sunil Gavaskar gave an interview to India Today in 2018, where he talked about his only heated exchange with Kapil. In 1979, India and Pakistan were playing against each other, and Sunil & Kapil were batting together Gavaskar revealed that he was batting on 166, and he played a shot on Imran Khan’s delivery, and he wanted a single.

Kapil denied the run, and Gavaskar got out on the very next ball. Gavaskar revealed that he was very angry going back in the dressing room as Kapil would have played the bouncer better than him. He said that early tea was taken that day, and he yelled at Kapil, which was their only heated exchange as per Gavaskar.

“But we were once involved in an angry exchange and that was in 1979 while playing against Pakistan. I was batting on 166 and then I played a shot towards backward point off Imran Khan. I wanted to take a single but Kapil Dev declined from the non-striker’s end and then I got out on the very next delivery,” Gavaskar said.

“Tea was taken 10-15 minutes after my dismissal and in the break, I yelled at him. As far as I remember, that’s the only instance of an angry exchange between two of us,” he added.

This incident took place during the 5th test of the 6-match series, which India won by 10 wickets in the end. India won the 6-match test series by 2-0, and four matches of the series ended in a draw. Gavaskar was the highest run-scorer of the series with 529 runs at 52.90.