Naveen-ul-Haq, Who Started Spat Between Virat Kohli And Gautam Gambhir In IPL 2023, To Play In SA20

Afghanistan and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) bowler Naveen-ul-Haq has been picked in the squad of Durban Super Giants, which will take part in the second edition of SA20. Naveen is among the six pre-signed players. The other cricketers are Prenelan Subrayen, Quinton de Kock. These two are from South Africa. Naveen is among the four overseas pre-signed players including Kyle Mayers, Reece Topley, Bhanuka Rajapaksa. 

Naveen plays white-ball cricket regularly for Afghanistan. He was bought by LSG last year and bowled well in IPL 2023. One controversry, and not a spell, made him a household name in India. It was the onfield spat with Virat Kohli after a match between LSG and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Kohli and Naveen had had a spat during the match. But later, during the handshake ceremony, Naveen refused to shake hand with Kohli which further irked the Ex-RCB captain. Later, LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir too joined the spat, having a heated conversation with Kohli.

Even after the spat ended, Kohli, Gambhir and Naveen continued to took potshots at each other through social media posts (Read Instagram story). 

Thread: A closer look at your preliminary #Betway #SA20 squads ahead of auction scheduled for 27 September. — Betway SA20 (@SA20_League) August 3, 2023

MI Cape Town, who retained last season’s captain Rashid Khan and Sam Curran and also pre-signed English duo Liam Livingstone and Tom Banton, still have a remaining R5.05 million in their purse. Jofra Archer, retains his slot in the squad as the teams Wildcard player. 

Paarl Royals boast R 8.865million in their purse and could potentially add high-profile overseas-based players to their squad as they enter the auction looking to fill four slots. Their squad already boasts the England pair of Jos Buttler and Jason Roy along with West Indian bowler, Obed McCoy. Promising seventeen-year-old South Africa U19 left-arm quick, Kwena Maphaka, becomes the youngest player to be signed, with the Paarl outfit snapping up the talented bowler ahead of the auction.  

Sunrisers Eastern Cape have retained the core of their championship-winning squad with a few notable overseas inclusions, including former ICC World No 1 T20 batter Dawid Malan, Liam Dawson and Craig Overton (who is their Wildcard) . This has left them with only three picks and a purse of R1.865 million available at the auction.

Runners-up Pretoria Capitals have greater room for movement with a remaining purse of R9.737 million to add a further six players to complete their 19-player squad. Five of those six players can potentially still be overseas players.

Joburg Super Kings will be in the market for five players with a remaining purse of R6.1 million. The Johannesburg outfit bolstered their squad with the pre-signing of Moeen Ali, David Wiese, Sam Cook and Zahir Khan.