Afghanistan fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq has opened up on the story behind his viral ‘sweet mangoes’ post on Instagram during the IPL 2023 season.

Naveen had shared a picture of him enjoying mangoes from a hotel room while watching the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians.

Incidentally, the timing of his post coincided with Virat Kohli's wicket in that game for just one run. As a result, the fans felt that the Lucknow Super Giants pacer was celebrating the RCB batter’s early dismissal.

Notably, Naveen was involved in a heated altercation with Kohli earlier in the IPL 2023 season. No wonder, his Instagram story took the internet by storm.

Almost six months later, Naveen-ul-Haq has now clarified that his sweet mangoes post wasn’t directed at Kohli.

“I had told Dhaval bhai (LSG team logistics) that I wanted to eat mangoes. And he got mangoes that night itself. When we went to Goa, he brought mangoes. So I was sitting in front of the screen and eating mangoes. There was no picture or anything (of Kohli), it was a Mumbai Indians player on the screen. So I wrote 'sweet mangoes' and everyone took it in a different way. So even I didn't say anything, I just left it. I thought it was mango season, so people's shops should also do well,” said Naveen in a video shared by LSG on X.

It is worth mentioning here that Naveen and Kohli buried the hatchet between them in the recently held ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.

During the India versus Afghanistan match in Delhi on October 11, both players shared a handshake and hug out there in the middle, much to the delight of the fans.