Mohammad Kaif tears apart Digvesh Rathi after wild sendoff to Priyansh Arya

LSG bowler Digvesh Rathi came under a lot of scrutiny after he gave a controversial send-off to the Punjab Kings opener Priyansh Arya during Tuesday's IPL game. It was the legendary India opener Sunil Gavaskar, who slammed him on English commentary.

However, Gavaskar is not the only one to slam him. Former India batter Mohammad Kaif also didn't like Digvesh Rathi's attitude and criticised him. The spinner was later fined by the BCCI and also received a demerit point.

Mohammad Kaif slams Digvesh Rathi for notebook send-off

During the Hindi commentary, Mohammad Kaif slammed Digvesh and wondered what his send-off would do as the batter has already been dismissed. It is to be noted that both Priyansh and Digvesh played for the same team in the Delhi Premier League and know each other well.

"Kya kar rahe hai? Kya khat likh rahe hai bhai wo (Priyansh Arya) toh jaa hi raha hai (What is he doing? To whom and what letter is he writing? He is anyway going back to the pavilion)," Kaif said during the commentary.

The notebook celebration became popular when West Indies fast bowler Kesrick Williams used to do it a few years ago. He did the same thing to Virat Kohli after getting his wicket in one game, and Kohli noticed it.

Later, Kohli smashed Williams for a no. of boundaries and used the same celebration against the bowler and mocked him. Since then, the celebration hasn't been used much, but has become extremely popular.

Also Read: Digvesh Singh Rathi given once-in-a-lifetime punishment by BCCI after Priyansh Arya send off

Sunil Gavaskar on Digvesh Rathi's celebration

Not only Kaif, Sunil Gavaskar was not pleased with Digvesh Rathi's attitude. During the English commentary, he vented his anger towards the young spinner. Gavaskar called it an act of "show off" and was unable to understand the reason behind it.

"I can understand the celebration if the wicket comes after the batsman hit a boundary or a six in the previous ball. As a bowler, you've got six deliveries. So if you got five dot balls and get a wicket of the sixth, then you do something like that, it's not understandable," said Gavaskar on live TV.

"But all these gestures mean that you don't expect to get a wicket. And now that you've got a wicket, you're trying to, you know, show off," he added.

Digvesh Rathi punished by the BCCI

The BCCI punished Digvesh Rathi for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct and fined him 25 percent of his match fees. One demerit point was also added to his account after the match referee, Prakash Bhatt, termed it a Level 1 offence.

Despite his antics, Digvesh was the best bowler from LSG as he returned with impressive figures of 2-30 in four overs. The spinner picked up both the wickets to fall for Punjab Kings but was unable to prevent a big defeat for Lucknow Super Giants.

Punjab Kings defeated LSG by 8 wickets with 22 balls remaining as they chased down a target of 172 with utmost ease. Skipper Shreyas Iyer led the way with the bat for Kings while Prabhsimran Singh top-scored for the team.

Read Also: Virat Kohli dragged as Sunil Gavaskar lashes out at Digvesh Singh Rathi's send-off to Priyansh Arya