Arshdeep Singh copped a fine for his flare-up with Daryl Mitchell in the T20 World Cup final between India and New Zealand. The fast bowler did apologise to the New Zealand all-rounder and any tension between the pair seemed to have been defused but the International Cricket Council (ICC) fined him 15 percent of his match fees and added a demerit point in Arshdeep’s record. India head coach Gautam Gambhir has since said that he wouldn’t have had a problem if Arshdeep didn’t apologise to Mitchell at all.
“That is okay. You’re representing your country. You’re bound to show aggression. There’s nothing wrong with that,” said Gambhir on ANI. Arshdeep had been hit for two sixes off the second and third balls of that over by Mitchell.
“No bowler likes to get hit for two sixes. And that is the kind of response I want to see from my players. And that there is nothing wrong. Or in fact, even if sorry is not said, I was absolutely fine with it. I was absolutely fine. He doesn’t need to say sorry. Yes, it’s good on him that he apologised. But on a cricket field, there are no friends. Neither are there any enemies,” Gambhir said.
The incident happened off the fifth ball of the 11th over, by which point New Zealand already had their backs well against the wall. They were chasing a mammoth target of 256 and were 102/5 at that point. Mitchell was visibly livid after Arshdeep walked back without an expression on his face after hitting him.
Suryakumar then went over to Mitchell and had a word with him, in which time umpire Richard Illingworth spoke with Arshdeep. Arshdeep then offered an apology to Mitchell after bowling the next ball. Arshdeep finished with figures of 0/32 as India won the final by 96 runs to take a record third men’s T20 World Cup title. They thus became the first men’s team to succesfully defend their title, having won in 2024 in which Arshdeep had played an integral role as well.
Arshdeep apologised at the end of the over but after the game, he offered a more heartfelt apology to the New Zealand batting all-rounder which could be seen in a video posted by the BlackCaps’ Instagram handle.
“I know I can apologise as much as I can but, really sorry,” Arshdeep can be heard telling Mitchell in the video before the pair shake hands and then share a chuckle. Arshdeep then spoke about it in an interview with the broadcasters. When commentator Harsha Bhogle pointed out that Arshdeep ran away briefly just as he was about to chat, the latter said: “Just went to apologise to Mitchell. My throw reverse-swung and hit him so just wanted to say sorry to him for that. It was not intentional,” said Arshdeep.
