Legendary team India batter and one of the commentators in the ongoing 16th season of the IPL Sunil Gavaskar was a fish out of water, when he incorrectly congratulated fast bowler Mohit Sharma for the Purple Cap post the Gujarat Titans versus Lucknow Super Giants match, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Advertisement
As is customary, the Purple Cap (for most number of wickets) is awarded to a player during the mid-innings break or post the match, soon after he manages to top the list of highest-wicket takers during an ongoing season.
Gujarat Titans pacer Mohammed Shami was to be handed the Cap by fellow team pacer Mohit Sharma for taking his tally of wickets to 19 after eleven innings, and thus getting tied alongside Rashid Khan and Tushar Deshpande, although at a better average and economy rate than both of them.
Gavaskar was designated to announce the same on behalf of Jio Cinema, but what followed was an innocuous blunder from his end.
Sunil Gavaskar Gets Humbled by Mohit Sharma For Wrongly Congratulating Him For Purple Cap
In what can be classified as a brain-fade moment, Sunil Gavaskar remarked, “Mohit, bahut bahut badhai. Purple Cap aapko mil rahi hai vo bhi Mohammed Shami ke haathon se [Congratulations, Mohit. You’ll be receiving the Purple Cap from Mohammed Shami].”
Realizing Gavaskar’s mistake, Mohit handled the situation pretty well, and humbly reminded him that it he (Mohit) will be presenting the Cap to Mohammed Shami and not the other way around.
“Thank You Bhaji! Ye mere haathon se Mohammed Shami ko mil rahi hai. Aapne ulta bol diya! [Thank You, Sir. But I’m the one presenting it to Mohammed Shami],” Mohit hilariously replied.
Gavaskar, upon being reminded of his blunder, sheepishly intervened Mohit and was like, “Ohh! Ulta hai? [Ohh! It’s the opposite?]”.
Gavaskar cleverly does the damage control
Quite impressively, Gavaskar, while acknowledging his error also cleverly reasoned what led to the mistake and confusion. The 73-year-old remarked that when two new ball pacers bowl at tandem, the opening batter is always likely to get confused.
“Yahi hota hai. Jab do naya gend istemaal karne vale gendbaaz hote hain na, to opening ballebaaz hamesha confuse hota hai! [This is what happens. When there are two new ball bowlers, the opening batter always gets confused!],” replied Gavaskar.
Watch the hilarious interaction, by clicking here.
