Indian star Virat Kohli hogged the limelight for the wrong reasons on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG as he appeared to deliberately bump into the Australian debutant Sam Konstas.

During the break between the 10th and 11th overs of the Australian innings, Konstas and Usman Khawaja were changing ends when Kohli walked towards the young opener and gave him a shoulder push mid-pitch.

The 19-year-old Konstas did not back down and turned to confront Kohli as the duo exchanged some heated words, prompting other players and umpires to intervene.

Virat Kohli’s shoulder-barging act drew him a lot of flak from the cricket fraternity, including the legendary Sunil Gavaskar.

Speaking to India Today, Gavaskar said that Kohli should look to be competitive without getting physical with players.

“I am not sure what the reason was, but there really was no need for that. We don’t need to have this in any grade of cricket, certainly not at the highest level. You can play very, very competitive cricket without getting physical. And we all want to remember Kohli as one of the greatest cricketers in the game and not as somebody who was fined by the ICC,” Gavaskar stated.

“Hopefully, he will learn and not want to repeat this again. Competitiveness is inbuilt in him, we have always seen how he celebrates every wicket and there’s nothing wrong with that. But one should not be getting physical,” he added.

The incident didn't distract Konstas as he went on to score 60 off 65 balls with 6 boundaries and 2 sixes. On the other hand, the ICC fined Kohli 20 percent of his match fee and awarded one demerit point.

Coming to the Melbourne Test, Australia finished the opening day on a high as half-centuries from the top-four batters propelled the hosts to 311/6. While Labuschagne (72) ended as the top scorer for the day, Steve Smith was unbeaten on 68 at stumps.