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The opening day of the fifth Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test saw things heat up as the day neared its close. Earlier in the match, stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah won the toss and opted to bat first. The Men in Blue once again succumbed to the Australian pace attack as they were bundled out at the score of 185 in 72.2 overs, courtesy a four-fer from Scott Boland.
Afterwards, it was Sam Konstas and Usman Khawaja who opened for the hosts, but Bumrah got the better of Khawaja as he departed leaving Australia stranded at 9/1 at stumps on day one. As the day neared close, Australian youngster Sam Konstas was seen getting into some words with Bumrah, who has been simply exceptional in the series.
Yeh bol bachchan karna shobha nhi deta hai: Rohit Sharma on Konstas-umrah exchange
The incident unfolded in the final over of the opening day. As Bumrah was ready for his run-up, Usman Khawaja just halted the proceeding saying that he wasn’t ready. Adding to the tensions, Konstas intervened, gesturing Bumrah to stop, to which the latter replied, “What’s your problem?” However, the on-field umpire was quick to step up and separate the two.
When asked about the incident on the second day of the fifth BGT Test at lunch, Rohit Sharma gave a blunt response, backing his players. He replied, "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 nonsense. These antics doesn't look nice).”
"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.),” he further continued, hitting back at Sam Konstas.
After scoring seven runs off eight deliveries on the opening day of Sydney Test, Sam Konstas could only add 16 more runs as he was dismissed by Mohammed Siraj with Yashasvi Jaiswal completing a catch to end his innings having scored 23 off 38 deliveries. Eventually, at Tea on Day 2, India restricted Australia to 181, taking four-run lead.
