Naveen-ul-Haq enjoyed playing while crowd was chanting Kohli’s name.

The IPL has groomed another Afghan cricketer, Naveen-ul-Haq, other than Rashid Khan, and they both are proving to be one of the most valuable assets for their teams. Naveen-ul-Haq, who is playing for Lucknow Super Giants in this IPL season, gathered a lot of media attention after his spat with the RCB’s stalwart and the Indian cricket star Virat Kohli during an IPL match at BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow, the duo(Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq) had an ugly argument, and later Lucknow Super Giants’ coach Gautam Gambhir indulged in a heated argument with Virat Kohli, due to which three of them were fined for breaching the IPL’s code of conduct.

After that incident, the young blood was constantly posting some messages on his social media accounts that social media users were linking to Virat Kohli. Since then, whenever the youngster starts his spell, the crowd, no matter where he is playing, starts chanting the name of Virat Kohli to tease the bowler, but Naveen-ul-Haq made these chants a fuel to perform better in the match. In fact, in his team’s last match against Mumbai Indians, which is the eliminator, he took 4 wickets, but his team unfortunately lost to Mumbai Indians, and now they are eliminated from the IPL 2023.

During post-match press interaction, he said that the voices or chants of Kohli’s name give him more boost to perform well for his team.

“I enjoy it. I like everyone on the ground chanting his (Virat Kohli) name or any other player’s name. It gives me the passion to play well for my team,”

“Well I don’t concentrate on the outside or the noise from outside or anything else. I just focus on my own cricket and my own process. Crowd chanting or anyone saying something doesn’t affect me.

“As professional sportsmen, you have to take this in your stride. When you don’t do well for your team, fans are going to give it to you. And when you do good for your team, (the) same people are going to chant your name. Basically, this is part and parcel of the game,”