Arshdeep Singh later apologized to Mitchell after India defeated New Zealand in T20 WC final.
Mitchell defended the ball in the eleventh over, but Arshdeep picked it up and flung it back, hitting Mitchell rather than the stumps.
Mitchell was enraged and charged at the batter, prompting the umpire and India skipper Suryakumar Yadav to intervene. Surprisingly, Arshdeep showed no guilt and returned to his run-up without looking at the batter.
Of course, Arshdeep shook hands and apologized to Mitchell after India won the T20 World Cup, but Gambhir would have been OK without it.
“That is ok. You are representing your country. You are bound to show aggression. If you throw back, what is wrong with that? No bowler likes getting hit for two sixes. And that is the kind of response I want to see from my players. There is nothing wrong. Even if he hadn’t said sorry, I was absolutely fine with it. He doesn’t need to say sorry,” Gambhir told ANI.
“Yes, it’s good on him that he apologized, but on the cricket field, there are no friends or enemies. Your job is to represent your country and win for your country. These things used to happen earlier, too. But in the era of social media, things escalate, for which, I think, there’s no need,” he added.
The ICC fined Arshdeep 15% of his match fee after he violated the rule of conduct. Gambhir has always backed his players to the hilt, even if it tends to get him in trouble.