Shikhar Dhawan Recalls Fights With Virat Kohli: 'I Abused A Lot, He Was...'

Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli always looked from the outside like the best of friends. They had similar Delhi-Punjabi backgrounds, dominated cricket in the capital at similar times, and became the spine of the national side together, especially forming two of an ODI top-three that was inarguably the best in the world for a while.

However, just like with probably every such friendship in sport, there were moments that didn’t go nearly as well. Dhawan has now recalled a couple of such incidents where he and Kohli fought, and the hot blood that made them look passionate and strong on the field went against them.

“Virat and I fought once. We shoulder-tackled each other once while playing football during a warm-up session. For a second, we got angry,”

Dhawan said on the Raj Shamani’s podcast, Figuring It Out. “Slowly, we stopped playing football in warm-ups because people would fight. It happens, there are so many athletes, aggressive, each one is big in his own right…” he added.

Dhawan didn’t mention the year, but narrated another incident where he couldn’t rein in his anger after getting run out with Kohli on the other end, though the source of frustration was also that year’s IPL auction.

“I was in South Africa, Virat ran me out. At that time, I got very angry… My (IPL) auction, too, hadn’t gone well. I wasn’t able to accept that as well. So, that was there, and then this (run out) happened. I abused a lot… he (Kohli) was in the middle, I was venting out in the dressing room — not at him, but like how batsmen usually would. But we have our understanding because we know it isn’t intentional. This happens in cricket,” he added.

Dhawan retired earlier this year from all Indian cricket. He’s into entrepreneurship now. Kohli is still playing ODIs and the IPL.

Dhawan’s first meeting with Kohli

Further in the podcast, Dhawan recalled the first time he met Kohli, who was a ‘soft-spoken’ boy whose life changed when his father, Prem, passed away during a Ranji Trophy match in 2006.

“Virat, around 16-17 years old, was a bit soft-spoken… Since I was the senior, he spent time with me. At that time, he was focused on food, but once on the field, he only wanted to score runs. He had a clear idea of his game and was always hungry for success,” Dhawan said.

“Unfortunately, when his father passed away, his zeal was already there, but his seriousness increased even more. I clearly remember the match when he came to play on the very day his father died and scored 95 runs. After that, he never looked back,” he said.