Among a huge list of intense moments of the cricketing career of the current head coach of the current Indian team, Gautam Gambhir was forced to remember the infamous elbow incident that took place with the Australia all-rounder Shane Watson during the 2008 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It took place during the third of the four games in Delhi.
In the recent conversation between the two Delhi-born, Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir, the former touched on the elbow incident but mentioned that he wouldn’t ask the head coach about the details owing to the similar aggressive style between them.
For what happened at the Firoz Shah Kotla ground (Now known as Arun Jaitley Stadium), the left-handed opening batter was banned for the last game in Nagpur during the series. The moment occurred when the veteran opener completed his second run to route a double century while Watson was seen getting into a heated argument with the batter.
Why was Gautam Gambhir banned from the Nagpur Test? Veteran opener Discloses
Following the incident, the opening batter was charged with a level two offense under the spirit of the game, while the veteran all-rounder was fined ten percent of his match fee following the hearing with the referee of the game, Chris Broad.
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“I won’t talk about the elbow because I can understand why the elbow would have happened.” Virat Kohli asked, wondering what exactly happened on that day.
The first game of the series in Bengaluru ended in a draw as Gautam Gambhir struggled with the bat for his two low scores in the game. But backed it up pretty beautifully in the second game in Punjab, when he smashed a half-century in the first innings before celebrating a 104-run knock in the second innings as they went 1-0 up in the series.
The Delhi-born looked in great touch as the series went on and fired up with a 206-run knock in the first innings of the Delhi Test before missing the final game.
The 42-year-old, during an old interview in 2020, claimed that he didn’t hit the elbow of the Australian all-rounder intentionally.
“Shane Watson! And the reason is I didn’t do that intentionally. I got banned after that game. A lot of people say that I elbowed him, but I didn’t do that purposely.” Gautam Gambhir expressed this during an interaction with Star Sports.
The veteran remarked that their head coach of that time, Gary Kirsten, told him to accept the offense to the match referee, hoping to get a light punishment but ended up being handed over the ban for the next game.
“When I was going for the hearing to the match, Gary Kirsten told me to accept it as it is Chris Broad. He will give you extra sympathy, and he is not going to ban you. I went inside with Gary Kirsten, and he asked if I accepted your mistake. I said ‘Yes’ and he said you are banned.” Gautam Gambhir shaded light.
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He has now joined the Indian team as the head coach since the T20 World Cup-winning Rahul Dravid stepped down from his position. India started quite well under his guidance with a T20I series victory in Sri Lanka but failed to grasp the ODI series against the same opponent.
Gautam Gambhir will now take charge of the red-ball side with two Tests against Bangladesh before preparing for another three five-day games against New Zealand. The biggest challenge for him will be the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy of five games in Australia towards the end of the year.