Gautam Gambhir denies purposely 'elbowing' birthday boy Shane Watson back in 2008

Gautam Gambhir is one of the best batsmen that India has ever produced. The southpaw, who retired from all forms of cricket in December 2018, is now into his second innings of sorts as a politician. Gautam Gambhir, who is a Member of Parliament from East Delhi, won the Lok Sabha 2019 elections as a BJP candidate from his constituency by a big margin of 695,109 votes despite being a first-time participant.

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Gautam Gambhir reckons he didn't elbow Shane Watson intentionally

Gautam Gambhir was an animated character on the field who always believed in giving it back to the opposition. The southpaw never shied away from getting into verbal wars with the opposition, which is why he used to find himself in the middle of several altercations with the likes of Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal etc. One of them was the infamous skirmish with former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson.

It all happened during the third Test match of the 2008 Border-Gavaskar series. Gautam Gambhir was arguably in the form of his life as he slammed his career-best 206 in the match. During the knock, Gautam Gambhir elbowed Shane Watson while taking a second run-off his delivery. Prior to the incident, both Shane Watson and Gautam Gambhir were relentlessly sledging each other. After the match, Gautam Gambhir was handed a one-match ban for breaching ICC Code of Conduct.

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Now, Gautam Gambhir has opened up on the incident and cleared that he didn’t do that intentionally. While speaking on Star Sports show ‘Cricket Connected’, Gautam Gambhir said that the then India coach, Gary Kirsten asked him to accept the mistake in front of match-referee Chris Broad. Gautam Gambhir said Kirsten thought Chris Broad might give him an extra sympathy if he accepted his mistakes.

So, Gautam Gambhir went to the match referee alongside Gary Kirsten. He added that Chris Broad asked him if he accepted his mistake? Although Gambhir said yes, he was banned by Broad for his actions.

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Shane Watson birthday

Chennai Super Kings star Shane Watson celebrated his 39th birthday on Wednesday. Shane Watson was often called the 'man for big stages' because he had a knack of performing on big occasions. Shane Watson scored a century in the semi-final and final of 2009 Champions Trophy and was also the Man of the tournament in 2012 T20 World Cup. The 39-year-old was also adjudged Player of the Match in 2006 Champions Trophy final. Shane Watson was the Man of the tournament in IPL 2008 and 2013. Shane Watson also scored a stroke-filled century 2018 IPL final.

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IMAGE COURTESY: PTI