Star batter Virat Kohli came into the limelight for the wrong reason during the IPL 2023 Match 43 as the Royal Challengers Bangalore star had an altercation with Lucknow Super Giants bowler Naveen-ul-Haq. It became the most talked about incident of the edition, as it even led to Virat Kohli having another heated argument with Gautam Gambhir during the same game as well. And, recently, Pakistan opener Imam-ul-Haq recalled the incident and shared that Agha Salman messaged Kohli on Instagram to calm him down after it. However, later, the BCCI imposed heavy fines on them as well.

“During the IPL, I remember Virat Kohli had a fight with Afghanistan bowler Naveen-ul-Haq. It was an intense fight that continued even after the game and Gautam Gambhir also joined it. It went viral and Virat was extremely angry. Following the incident, Salman Agha messaged him on his Instagram, ‘Kohli bachche easy ho ja. Kya ho gaya? (Kohli kid please calm down what happened),” Imam-ul-Haq said on the Honest Hour podcast.

However, due to the infamous incident, Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir were fined 100% of their match fees after they were found guilty of a Level 2 offence whereas Naveen-ul-Haq lost 50% of his match fees for his Level 1 offence. Meanwhile, in the recently concluded ODI World Cup 2023, Kohli and Naveen had another face-off as well where both cricketers put their past differences behind them and hugged each other during the match. Following the incident, Naveen shared that Kohli asked him to end the fight and he (Naveen) even praised the star India batter for his feats as well.