‘He said ‘Now don’t say there is a tiff” – Piyush Chawla reveals Gautam Gambhir’s ‘class’ act regarding Virat Kohli

Piyush Chawla reveals Gautam Gambhir’s ‘class’ act regarding Virat Kohli. (Source – BCCI)

It has been a decade and a half since Gautam Gambhir conferred a Player of the Match awarded to him to a young Virat Kohli. Kohli had scored his maiden ODI century in that game, against Sri Lanka. It was a gesture brimming with appreciation for a young talent. However, there have not been a lot of instances since then where camaraderie has been seen between the two Delhi lads.

After Gambhir’s appointment as India’s head coach, he cleared his stance regarding his relationship with Kohli, mentioning that both of them are passionate individuals on the field and it completely usual to fight it out for their respective teams, referring to their on-field conflicts in IPL 2013 and 2023.

Former Indian cricketer, Piyush Chawla, who has been a teammate of both Kohli and Gambhir in the past, shared an engaging anecdote of his former KKR skipper, highlighting the support provided by Gambhir to up and coming talents in his team.

“You know what the best thing about Gauti bhai is? He will motivate you, give you a free hand and the way he backs you. If he sees that talent in you, he will back you even if you don’t do anything in all 14 games. If you can do it, he will back you which is a brilliant thing for any player,” stated Chawla in Shubhankar Mishra’s podcast.

The leg-spinning also shared the contrasting nature of Gambhir on and off the field, and lauded him as “one of the best humans”.

“I played under him for 4-5 years – in fact we played for India and India A together – the way he appears on the ground, aggressive and all, off it he is equally polite. The amount of fun I have interacting with him it just amazing. Gauti bhai, one of the best humans I have come across,” mentioned Chawla.

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Gauti bhai is all class. He is one of the best: Piyush Chawla 

Providing another case which displayed the extreme humility of Gambhir, Chawla narrated an incident at the end of which the former opener quelled any uncertainty pertaining the relationship he shares with Kohli.

“I and Gauti bhai were doing a show. A question was asked, ‘when Virat completed his 50th century, which bowler did he take the single off? I couldn’t answer it, but Gambhir did it. He’s like, ‘now don’t say there’s any tiff. Gauti bhai is all class. He is one of the best,” added Chawla.

Also Read: ”Shahenshah’ Kohli, ‘Dabang’ Tendulkar, ‘Khiladi’ Bumrah’ – Gautam Gambhir nicknames cricket stars

Interestingly, Chawla, Kohli, and Gambhir were all part of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad which was one under the leadership of MS Dhoni.