Tensions have been flaring from both the ends in the ongoing India vs England Test series. However, one would have never expected the tensions to escalate so much that two former cricketers would get involved in. But on Wednesday things got a bit hostile when India batting great Sunil Gavaskar collided with former England skipper Nasser Hussain during the pre-match show ahead of the ongoing Test in Leeds on Wednesday.
It all started with the Indian legend asking Hussain to make a clarification on the statement the latter made in his column for the Daily Mail. The former England cricketer-turned commentator in his column wrote that this Virat Kohli-led unit not being bullied as compared to the previous Indian teams visiting England. Gavaskar asked the ex-England skipper to elaborate more on his statement and asked him which generation was he specifically talking about.
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“You said this India will not be bullied as perhaps the previous generations would be. (I) Belonging to previous generation, could you perhaps enlighten which generation? And what is the exact meaning of bully?” Gavaskar asked Hussain.
“I just think, the Indian side under the aggression of the past, would have said ‘no no no’. But what Kohli has done is to make them go doubly hard. I saw a little bit of that in Sourav Ganguly’s side and he started that, Virat is continuing with it. Even when Virat was not there, Ajinkya really went hard at the Australians. I just don’t think you want to wake this Indian side up,” Hussain replied.
Gavaskar then went on to list down the records of the India side - which he was a part of - in England.
“But when you say previous generations were bullied, I don’t think so. I’d be very upset if my generation was being talked about as being bullied. If you have a look at the record, in 1971 we won, that was my first tour in England. 1974, we had internal problems so we lost 3-0. 1979, we lost 1-0, it could have been 1-1 if we chased down 438 at the Oval. 1982 we again lost 1-0. In 1986 we won 2-0, we could have won it 3-0. So, I don’t think my generation we were bullied. I don’t think aggression means you have always got to be at the face of the opposition. You can show passion, you can show your commitment towards your team without yelling after each fall of wicket,” Gavaskar said.
“I for one, quite like the way Kohli leads this side. That’s what I wanted to say. That team talk in which he said ‘let’s unleash fire on this English side’ and you could see the fire that they unleashed,” Hussain said.
“There is no argument in that. The question is saying that the previous generations were bullied. I don’t think this is right,” Gavaskar added.
The heated duel between the two came to an end after an interruption by Harsha Bhogle when he said Hussain will have to leave a bit early for the toss.
