No handshake: Tension brewing between Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya?

Dubai: The toss hadn’t even finished, but social media had already picked a side.

A non-handshake, a pointed celebration, and a viral post — Friday’s IPL Eliminator between Hardik Pandya’s Mumbai Indians and Shubman Gill’s Gujarat Titans was more than just a cricket match. It was a subplot-heavy episode in the great Indian soap opera that is the IPL.

The supposed snub — with some claiming Gill ignored Hardik’s handshake at the toss — quickly set the internet ablaze. But a wider shot from the broadcast suggested otherwise: the two did shake hands, albeit briefly. Still, that didn’t stop fans from dissecting every frame, especially after Pandya’s animated celebration when he dismissed Gill for just 1 run.

Pandya added to the spectacle with a nine-ball blitz, smashing 22 runs at a strike rate of 244.44, while Gill’s early exit dented GT’s chase of Mumbai’s mammoth 229. The Titans fought back through Sai Sudharsan’s 80 and Washington Sundar’s 48, but Mumbai’s death bowlers held their nerve to seal a 20-run win.

Gill later addressed the social media frenzy with a cheeky Instagram story: “Nothing but love (Don’t believe everything you see on the internet) @hardikpandya95.”