Pakistan batter Agha Salman revealed he had texted Virat Kohli on his Instagram DM after the latter’s fight with Gautam Gambhir during IPL 2023. The ugly on-field spat between Kohli and Gambhir took the world by storm and became one of the most controversial moments in the history of the cash-rich league.
Such was the magnitude of the spat, that even players of both teams and umpires had to intervene to pull them away from each other.
The 30-year-old Salman, who is currently playing in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) for Islamabad United, touched upon the topic in a video for the franchise. Although he didn’t reveal what the exact words were, but did share a few details.
“I have so much respect for Virat Kohli, I don’t think there is any cricket fan in the world who doesn’t respect him. I texted him, I am not going to tell you the complete details but will just tell you the start. It started with ‘Virat Bhai’, I texted him when he had a fight with Gautam Gambhir (during IPL 2023),” Salman said.
Kohli gets tons of DMs everyday on his Instagram and it is usual that he may miss out on some. Similarly, the India batter missed on Salman’s DM. The 30-year-old revealed how Kohli came to know about his text later that year.
It was during the Asia Cup 2023 when India and Pakistan faced each other for the first time since the epic T20 World Cup clash at MCG in 2022. During the continental showpiece, a picture of Kohli, Shadab Khan and Salman laughing together had gone viral on social media.
Salman revealed, in that viral picture, Shadab told Kohli about Salman’s text and the three burst into laughter. “I mistakenly told Shadab Khan about texting Virat. You have watched the video of me, Shadab and Virat standing together (during Asia Cup 2023).