Gulbadin Naib's first reaction to cheating allegations via cheeky reply to R Ashwin's 'red card' demand

Afghanistan all-rounder Gulbadin Naib gave his first reaction to his hamstring injury act, which was heavily criticised during a T20 World Cup Super Eight Group 1 match against Bangladesh in Kingstown on Tuesday. Naib suddenly fell to the ground during the 12th over Bangladesh's chase, clutching his hamstring when Noor Ahmed was about to bowl the fifth ball. He was standing comfortably in the first slip seconds before that.

It was only after Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott signalled from the boundary lines, asking the Afghan fielders to slow things down as Bangladesh had fallen behind on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) par score in the rain-hit Super 8 clash, that Naib decided to pull the dramatic act.

The rain got heavier, and the umpires had no choice but to call for the covers. Thankfully, the stoppage was not long. It only took one over off Bangladesh's chase and reduced their target by two runs.

The match saw frequent rain interruptions and Bangladesh, at that stage, were 81 for 7, two runs behind on the DLS par score in a revised chase of 116. After the brief stoppage, Bangladesh's target was revised to 114 in 19 overs.

The Afghans eventually prevailed by eight runs to enter their maiden World Cup semifinal but Gulbadin's act remained one of the major talking points during and after the match.

It was further proven that he was not seriously injured when he returned to bowl two overs, also picking up the important wicket of Tanzim Sakib in one of them.

Naib was given treatment and was taken off the field by teammate Naveen-ul-Haq and a support staff as it started raining again and players ran to the dugout.

Gulbadin Naib's quirky reply Ashwin's red card demand

"Kabi khushi kabi gham main huta hai (It happens sometimes when you are happy or when you are sad). Hamstring," Naib later said in a post on X, dotted with laughing emojis.

This was in response to a tongue-in-cheek post by India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

"Red card for Gulbadin Naib," Ashwin had said.

When play resumed after a short delay, the target for Bangladesh was revised.

Naib was soon back on the field in the 13th over with Najibullah Zadran substituting him briefly. The all-rounder also rolled his arms over and dismissed Tanzim Hasan in the 15th over to reduce Bangladesh to 92 for 8.

Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan sought to play down the incident.

"Well, he had some cramp, I don't know what happened to him and I don't know what's going on in social media but that doesn't matter - it's just the end field injury which comes and then we haven't lost any overs, the rain came and we just went off, it's not something like brought a massive difference in the game.

"We came back on field after five minutes and there was no massive difference. For me, it's just like a small injury comes in, then you have to take some time."