Gambhir was responding to a question about his clash with Pakistan goalkeeper Kamran Akmal in the 2010 Asia Cup when Mahendra Singh Dhoni had to pull the Indian opener away as things started to heat up.In that match, playing as the number one, Pakistan scored 267 runs with Salman Butt scoring 74 and Akmal 51. When the Indians took the field, Akmal tried to tease Gambhir a few times but eventually managed to elicit a response from him. Gambhir scored 83 in this match and with the help of Dhoni’s half-century, helped India to a three-wicket win off the penultimate ball of the match.

Gambhir clarified that despite his quarrel with Akmal, there is no bad blood between them.

We are very good friends. In fact, I gave him a bat and he also gave me a bat. I played a whole season with the bat that Kamran gave me. We spoke for an hour recently, Gambhir added.

He further added that hitting on someone during a game is okay as long as the players don’t cross the line.

(You can) sledging but don’t get personal. You have to stay within your limits. You don’t need to engage a family member or get personal. Banter is fine. In the matches against Australia and Pakistan, we used to banter a lot, he said.