Virat Kohli is the Indian international cricket player who plays for the India team in test, ODI, and T20 formats. He is known for his aggressive attitude on the field. His attitude and on field aggression is the reason he has very high energy on the outfield and sometimes he get into the harsh conversation with the players which creates controversies and rivalries.
Virat Kohli loves to perform under pressure and in the presence of huge crowd in the stadium. When he gets excited, he tries to poke the opposite team players to dampen their confidence because if opponent is weak from his mind then definitely Kohli dominates the game. This behavior sometime leads to the harsh conversations between the players. Few controversies and rivalries finishes within weeks but few of them lasts a decade or longer than that.
In one of the interview by Star Sports, Virat Kohli said that his one of the main reasons for his fearless and aggressive attitude on the field is because he hates loosing the game. He has taken on everyone by his own terms and commented on every opponent players without any regrets. He is able to handle everyone on the field because he is confident and he believes in his ability to perform on the ground.
List of Virat Kohli Controversies and Rivalries
Virat Kohli vs Gautam Gambhir
Virat Kohli rivalry with Gautam Gambhir is one of the most talked rivalries in the world. Before becoming the mentor of the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Gautam Gambhir used to play for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). In 2013, Virat and Gambhir got into small but harsh conversation during an IPL match between KKR and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Same thing repeated in the 2016 edition of the IPL match between RCB and KKR.
Major Gautam and Virat’s controversy started in the season 2023 IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore(RCB) and Lucknow Super Giants(LSG). They both involved in the heated conversation in the middle of the stadium.
Gautam Gambhir was the mentor of the Lucknow Super giants and the heated conversation started when Gambhir came on the field after winning the match. Gambhir can be seen putting his index finger on his mouth to shut up the noise of Bangalore supporters. Like Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir is also very aggressive and fearless on the field that is the reason this rivalry lasted very long.
In the same match, Avesh Khan threw the helmet on the ground (refer image above) after winning the match. This rude behavior of Avesh Khan also heated the environment among the RCB fans.
Interestingly, RCB won the next match between RCB and LSG and this time Virat was seen putting his index finger on his mouth to shut up Gautam Gambhir. So this was the direct revenge taken by Virat Kohli from Gambhir. In this match Virat also poked Naveen Ul Haq when he came to bat in the second inning.
Also on the same match, Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir both got the penalty of 100% of their match fees for violating the IPL code of conduct. IPL has some rules of conduct of Indian Premier League to run the tournament smoothly without any interruption in the game.
This rivalry between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir came to an end when both of them shook their hand and hugged each other in the 2024 IPL match. And this rivalry between them ends which has lasted more than a decade.
Virat Kohli vs Naveen-ul-Haq
Naveen and Virat controversy started in the same match where Gambhir and Kohli got into the heated word exchange in the 2023 IPL. Kohli was poked by Naveen in the match when Naveen was bowling. In return Kohli can be seen showing his aggression towards him when Naveen came to bat in the second inning.
Naveen also denied taking to Virat after the match and during the handshake. In the match, Naveen-ul-Haq also got the penalty of 50% of the match fees for breaching the IPL code of conduct.
Naveen Ul Haq and Virat Kohli’s fight ends on the same year 2023 during the India vs Afghanistan world cup cricket match. In this match, Kohli asked crowd and his fan to not to troll Naveen and also Kohli gave a warm hug to Naveen. This shows that apart from controversy and rivalry, Virat Kohli knows how to maintain good relationship with his fans as well as with his opponents.
Kesrick Williams vs Virat Kohli
Kesrick Williams and Virat Kohli rivalry is famous for their notebook celebrations during the match. In 2017, during India tour of West Indies, Williams took a dig at Virat Kohli after taking his wicket in Jamaica.
After taking Kohli’s wicket, Kesrick celebrated by marking a notebook sign on his hands. This attitude triggered Virat Kohli and he remembered this notebook celebration for long time.
Now, in 2019, when West Indies came to India for T20 series, Virat Kohli smashed 94 runs in just 50 balls in Hyderabad match. In the same match when Williams was bowling, Kohli celebrated his winning shots by notebook sledge which mimicked the William’s celebration earlier.
This scene also confirms that Kohli does not forget his rivals and he continuously finds the opportunity to payback their deeds.
Virat Kohli vs Kieron Pollard
Virat Kohli and Kieron Pollard clashed in IPL 2014. Actually the fight begins between Mitchell Starc and Pollard in the RCB vs Mumbai Indians(MI) match. Mitchell Starc bowled a bouncer to pollard to which he was unable to play the shot. Then Starc sledged pollard to play the proper shot to his bowling.
Pollard got really angry on Starc and signaled him to go and ball properly. In the next ball pollard moved side from his batting crease but still Starc bowled the ball towards Pollard. Replying to which pollard threw his bat on the ground to scare the Starc (refer the image above).
During this match, Virat Kohli was the captain of RCB and he came to settle the argument between Pollard and Starc. When Kohli came to pollard to cool the environment, Pollard Grabbed his neck to show his anger. Umpire came close to both of them to separate them apart from the fight.
Cricket fans consider this fight between Starc, Kohli, and Pollard as one of the greatest fight in the cricket history.
That is all for the Virat Kohli’s rivalries and controversies. If you like the Jhanper Cricket posts, then please do subscribe to our Jhanper Cricket YouTube Channel for tennis cricket videos. You can also find us on Jhanper Cricket Instagram page.