Robin Uthappa recalled the face-off between India and Australia from the year 2017. He revealed that there was a lot of verbal exchange between players during the 2007 World T20 semi-final match, and then the one-off T20I match and seven-match ODI series the same year.
Uthappa said the sledging between him and Matthew Hayden was so bad that the latter didn't talk to him for years. Hayden is someone he always admired and Uthappa was hurt by the Aussie not interacting with him after the on-field nasty sledging.
"The amount of sledging that happened in that game (2007 T20 World Cup semifinal) was incredible. I remember people having a go at me and at that time when they had a go, very few people retaliated. Only Zak bhai (Zaheer Khan) was one of them and a few other fast bowlers. But none of the batsmen gave it back," Uthappa told stand-up comedian Sorabh Pant on his YouTube show 'Wake Up With Sorabh'.
"In that game, Gauti (Gautam Gambhir) gave it back. I gave it back to Andrew Symonds, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Haddin. The toughest one that I encountered in that game was Matthew Hayden. He inspired me as a person and batsman.
"In fact, my walking shot was picked out of him. I remember Haydos was batting and in that game, he was going at me and that is when I decided, 'Ok, I'm going to give it back'. So when they came to bat, I was giving it. And it got to Haydos at a point, while he was batting."
Uthappa wanted to get inside the mind of the Aussie cricketers and he didn't hold himself back even though it was Hayden against him. "He said something to me which I'm not going to repeat and I said something back to him. He did not speak to me for 2-3 years. He would be very cold-shouldered to me. And it hurt. Because at that point, it was about winning. I wanted to win and make them feel as uncomfortable as possible, and I did that. We won but I missed out on interacting with someone who truly inspired me," he said.
The sledging between the two teams continued when India hosted Australia at home later that year. India had defeated Australia in the T20I match, but they lost the ODI series by 4-2.
"Later that year, when Australia came to play a seven ODI series and a one-off T20Is, even then we were at each other's throats. In a one-day game, MS and they (senior players) would make me stand at silly point just to chew Ricky Ponting's head and stuff like that. It was a great time," Uthappa added.
