- By Namrata Vijay
- Sun, 07 Dec 2025 12:45 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
IND vs SA 3rd ODI: Problems between senior players and coaches of a team are never a good sign, as it might lead to a rift in a team, and that will affect the team's progress. Irrespective of all the speculation around the bond between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir, the host team had enough match-winners on their side to win the ODI series against South Africa by 2-1.
Speculations were rife that all was not well between Kohli and Gambhir in India's dressing room, as these two players were on opposite ends owing to a few on-field arguments a few years ago, especially in the IPL, where they were always at opposite ends.
Now that Gambhir is the coach of the Indian team and Kohli a senior player of that team, rumours of a rift between them have become worrisome for the dressing room. Obviously, these are seen as baseless claims as winning matches is their priority, but despite all this, the fans like to believe in these rumours.
Post the host's nine-wins in Vishakhapatnam, where they had won the match with 10 overs remaining and also won the series by 2-1, it was Kohli and Gambhir's post-match conversation which caught everyone's attention. After scoring a match-winning knock of 65 runs off 45 balls and also scoring the winning runs, Kohli was seen walking off the field with Yashasvi Jaiswal and was seen smiling as he met his teammates and hugged them to celebrate the win.
Upbeat Kohli shows a new version of himself
But fans noticed that there was a change in his behaviour when he met Gambhir, as he shared a formal handshake with him before he met the others. Since Kohli didn't smile and moved on quickly, it led to more rumours about the relationship between these two.
Kohli looked in a good mood throughout this game as he also took brilliant catches while fielding and helped the Indian bowlers skittle the visitors out for just 270 runs. He also took a brilliant catch to dismiss and was later seen dancing with Kuldeep when he took a wicket, and was also seen laughing with some bowlers.
When he came to bat, the hosts were in the driver's seat, and he showed his batting prowess by smashing fours and sixes.
Kohli has really changed the way he greets Gambhir, and that shows that there might actually be a rift between these two. As long as the team is winning matches in this format, all of these rumours might well be forgotten by the team.