'Nowhere to be compared' - Sunil Gavaskar speaks on Kohli-Head incident Sunil Gavaskar compares Kohli-Head episode to

Published - 24 May 2026, 18:03 IST | Updated - 24 May 2026, 18:57 IST

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has spoken on comparisons between the incident between Virat Kohli and Travis Head and his famous ‘walk-off’ from the MCG Test against Australia.

Kohli and Head were engaged in a war of words during the match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the recent IPL 2026 clash in Hyderabad, which ended with the Indian batter refusing to shake hands with the Aussie cricketer after the game.

Gavaskar dismissed claims that the incident was comparable to the occurrence from 1981. On that occasion, the Indian veteran refused to walk after having been adjudged leg before wicket off Dennis Lillee’s bowling but refused to walk after claiming to have edged the ball to his pad. A war of words followed, which prompted Gavaskar and fellow opener Chetan Chauhan to walk off the field.

“Nothing similar happened, nowhere to be compared. You will have to ask both of them what happened,” said Gavaskar, speaking to the press.

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The cricketer-turned-commentator stated that in the heat of the moment, such incidents can take place due to the circumstances surrounding representing the country in high-intensity sport. The 76-year-old further added that incidents that happen in today’s day and age are in the public domain a lot sooner due to social media.

“In the heat of the moment things happen, anybody can snap. During our time there weren’t stump mics, so nothing went out. But with stump mics you can hear what goes on. At the end of the day, when you play for your country, you give just about everything, blood, sweat toil, and tears,” he said, speaking on the Mid-Wicket Stories show.

“Everything goes to the public domain a lot sooner. The clip that you saw of 1981, there have been videos of the 1981 incident, but two people in AB [Allan Border] and me talking about it, that’s probably the first time where people got to know what happened, so it’s taken that long. But now thanks to social media, it’s probably a lot more immediate in how it will come through,” the legendary cricketer stated.