Naveen-ul-Haq breaks silence on alleged ‘I’m sorry Kohli’ remark that went viral | Cricket

For the second consecutive IPL season, Lucknow Super Giants failed to go past the Eliminator, losing to Mumbai Indians this year at the Chepauk. However, despite what was a hot and cold campaign for Krunal Pandya’s men, they found an able pace-bowling option in Naveen-ul-Haq, who picked 11 wickets in just eight games at an economy rate of 7.82. Four of those wickets came in that MI game, albeit in a losing cause. Following the match, and what marked the end of his debut IPL season, there was an alleged tweet from him that went viral pertaining to Virat Kohli. Naveen has now lifted the lid on the internet-breaking post.

During his debut season, Naveen had entered into a heated chat with the former RCB captain during their IPL game on May 1 in Lucknow. Ever since the infamous incident, no matter where LSG played, the crowd kept chanting Kohli’s name to rile Naveen up. It happened in Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kolkata and in Chennai as well during the Eliminator tie. Naveen never directly responded to it, but did give a sharp reaction by celebration with fingers on his ears, an act to shut the outside noise, each time he picked a wicket against Mumbai.

Following the game, a Twitter handle by the name, ‘@naveenulhaq66’ posted “I’m sorry Virat Kohli sir”. It had instantly gone viral garnering over 25000 likes. And with the account also bearing a blue tick sign, the internet could not stop talking about the reaction.

On Saturday, Naveen shared a screengrab of the Twitter account on his Instagram story and clarified it as a “fake account” and warned fans to report if they received any messages from the account. Well, the account has now been suspended from Twitter.

Naveen did however open up on the Kohli chants made by the spectators after the match against Mumbai.

Speaking in the post-match conference earlier this week, he said: “I enjoy it. I like the crowd chanting his [Virat Kohli’s] name or any other player’s name. It gives me passion to play well for my team.”

“Well, I don’t concentrate on the noise from the outside or anything else. I just focus on my own process. It’s not like if the crowd is chanting or anyone is saying something… it doesn’t affect me. As professional sportsmen, you have to take this in your stride. One day you will not do your best for the team and the fans will give it to you. On another day, you will do a special thing for your team and the same people can chant your name. So, [it’s] basically a part and parcel of the game.”