Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill has cleared the air on rumours of an ‘ego clash’ with his Mumbai Indians counterpart Hardik Pandya.
The two teams engaged in an intense battle yesterday in the Eliminator match, in which Pandya’s MI edged out Gill’s GT side in a thrilling encounter at the New PCA Stadium in Mullanpur.
Pandya vs Gill: ‘Ego clash’?
While the two teams played their hearts out in an edge-of-the-seat thriller, both captains seemed to have engaged in a ‘clash’ of their own in the midst of battle.
It all started before the match, during toss time, with an awkward interaction between the two captains.
As is the norm, the two captains shake hands during toss time. However, as Pandya looked to initiate a shake, Gill refused the opportunity and walked away.
This seemed to have amped up tensions as Pandya aggressively celebrated Gill’s wicket in the second innings, running past the GT opener and shouting “Come on!” while celebrating the dismissal with his MI teammates.
Gill clarifies with “Nothing but love”
This, of course, set social media ablaze as rumours of an ‘ego clash’ spread faster than a wildfire.
It obviously reached Gill’s attention, as the GT skipper, who was recently appointed captain of the Indian Test team, took to Instagram to clear the air.
Posting a two-picture collage of him and Pandya, Gill wrote, “Nothing but love (Don’t believe everything you see on the internet).”
The two have history, as Pandya and Gill were the first and third players, respectively, to get drafted by GT in 2022.
The duo forged a successful partnership and even lifted the IPL 2022 title in GT’s first year in the league.
Hardik was the player of the final while Gill hit the winning six to clinch the title. In fact, the swashbuckling opener registered his best-ever IPL season (890 runs in 2023) the very next year under Pandya’s captaincy.
Pandya then left the franchise and joined MI for IPL 2024, which saw Gill ascend to GT captaincy.
The five-time champions MI will next play the Punjab Kings in Qualifer 2, which is scheduled for June 1, Sunday, at GT’s home, the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad.
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