KKR's Angkrish Raghuvanshi apologises after insulting remarks towards Saina Nehwal

A video featuring former World No. 1 badminton player Saina Nehwal went viral on social media on Friday. In the video, she discussed the increasing popularity of Olympic sports, highlighting their greater physical demands compared to cricket.

It created controversy when Kolkata Knight Riders' rising star Angkrish Raghuvanshi responded with a harsh tweet before promptly deleting it and issuing an apology.

Nehwal criticised the overwhelming attention given to cricket in India, contrasting its perceived ease with the physical demands of badminton, basketball, tennis, and other sports.

“I did that, I feel it’s like a dream sometimes. I did it in India because there’s no sporting culture in India.

"Sometimes, we feel so bad that cricket gets that attention. What I have one thing about cricket is, if you see badminton, basketball, tennis and of course the other sports are so tough physically.

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"You don’t even have the time to pick up the shuttle and serve. You’re like (imitates panting), 20 seconds of run you just breathing so hard. And the game like cricket gets that kind of attention where I think personally skill is more important,” she said in a podcast with Nikhil Simha.

This perspective drew backlash from Raghuvanshi, who mockingly suggested she face fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah's deliveries.

In his now-deleted post, the KKR player wrote: "Let's see how she goes when Bumrah bowls 150k's bumpers at her head."

After the tweet garnered attention online, Raghuvanshi expressed regret for his comment, acknowledging its immaturity and issuing a public apology.

“I’m sorry everyone, I meant my remarks as a joke, looking back I think it was a really immature joke. I realize [sic] my mistake and I sincerely apologize [sic],” wrote Raghuvanshi on his X account.

Raghuvanshi, a standout performer in the 2022 U-19 World Cup, made his debut for KKR in IPL 2024. In the season he scored 163 runs from 10 matches at an average of 23.29 including a fifty.