India captain Rohit Sharma has criticised Sam Konstas for his on-field altercation with Jasprit Bumrah during the ongoing Sydney Test against Australia.
On the cusp of stumps on day one, Konstas was involved in a fiery exchange with Bumrah after the fast bowler was visibly frustrated when opener Usman Khawaja took his time to face the last ball of the third over of Australia’s first innings. The incident riled up Bumrah, who responded by dismissing Khawaja in the same over, also the last of the day. India erupted in celebration with Bumrah giving Konstas a stare-down.
Rohit, who decided to rest himself for the match owing to poor form, opened up about the on-field spat in a mid-session chat with Star Sports on the second day of the match. He voiced support for Bumrah, stating that Konstas poked the India stand-in captain first.
He further criticised Konstas calling the teenager's antics "nonsense".
"Our boys are silent only till a particular time," said Rohit. "If you are going to poke them, then they will retaliate. We all are here to play cricket. Please don't do such nonsense. These antics don't look nice. 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, to keep the pressure on Australia."
'Not his battle to fight' – Ponting criticises Konstas
Speaking on Channel 7, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has also criticised Konstas for his run-in with Bumrah: "One guy you don't want to upset is Jasprit Bumrah. The way he's bowled and the fact he has got Khawaja out five times in the series. I didn't like Konstas getting involved. That was not his battle to fight. It was between Khawaja and Bumrah."
Ricky Ponting has criticised Sam Konstas for his run-in with India skipper Jasprit Bumrah in the final minutes of day one of the SCG Test.
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This is not the first time Konstas has got under India's skin. On his Test debut in the Boxing Day Test in MCG, Konstas and Virat Kohli collided against each other. He followed with two fours, a six, and two twos in the next over, from Jasprit Bumrah before departing for 60 off 65, becoming the youngest Australia opener to score a fifty at 19 years 85 days.
At Sydney, he began with an identical tempo, giving Bumrah the charge off the first ball of the innings to start with a four. He slogged his way to 23 before edging Mohammed Siraj to Yashasvi Jaiswal at slips. Australia fell four runs short of India's first-innings score of 185.
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