Sam Konstas hogged the limelight once again as India took on Australia in the fifth and final Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The 19-year-old was involved in a heated altercation with India’s star batter Virat Kohli in the Boxing Day Test at MCG. He followed it up with another controversial incident on Day 1 of the Sydney Test, and this time with the Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah.
During the final over of the day, Usman Khawaja was on strike facing Bumrah. The left-handed opener made the fast bowler wait as he was about to begin his run-up, to make sure that it would be the final over of the day.
Khawaja’s act left Bumrah furious. At the non-striker’s end, Konstas decided to add some spice to the drama in an attempt to catch the stand-in Indian captain off guard.
Konstas and Bumrah exchanged a few words and before it could reach a tipping point, the umpires intervened. The incident fired up Bumrah as he got rid of Khawaja caught behind.
Bumrah erupted in animated celebrations after getting the wicket. He charged up at Konstas and was joined by his other teammates, including Kohli.
A day later, India skipper Rohit Sharma gave his blunt take on the incident, backing his players by saying that the Australian youngster poked Bumrah first.
Speaking to Star Sports during the lunch break on Day 2 of the Sydney Test, Rohit said: "Humare ladke jab tak shaant hain tab tak shaant hain. Agar aap ungli kar rahe ho, tab thodi na koi shaant baithega. Cricket khelo, yeh faaltu ki cheezein, yeh bol bachchan karna shobha nhi deta hai. (Our boys are silent only till a particular time. If you are going to poke them, then they will retaliate. We all are here to play cricket. Please don't do such non sense. These antics doesn't look nice.)”
He added, "Humare ladke classy hain. Hum zyada iss baat pe focus karte hain ki humara kaam kya hai. Humare liye uss time zaroori tha ki ek-do wickets lene taaki jab morning session shuru ho tab Australia pe pressure bana rahe. (Our boys are very classy. We only focus on the given task and nothing else. It was important for us to scalp one or two wickets at that moment, in order to keep the pressure on Australia.)”
Notably, Rohit is not part of India’s playing XI at the SCG. He decided to step away from this Test match due to bad form.
Rohit was all over the place in the ongoing tour Down Under, managing just 31 runs in five innings at an abysmal average of 6.20 -- the lowest by a touring captain on Australian soil.
