Courtesy: 7Cricket/X
During the morning session of the fourth Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test match, Sam Konstas and Virat Kohli collided with each other on the side of the pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), triggering a heated exchange between both the players before being separated by the umpires. While in his commentary stint with 7Cricket, Ricky Ponting teared into Virat Kohli for instigating the confrontation with the teenager, stating that it was the fault of the former Indian captain.
The incident happened after the conclusion of the 10th over of the Australian innings, during the change over, when Virat Kohli seemingly changed his walking trajectory towards Sam Konstas before colliding with him as he was going towards the other end of the ground, to start fielding in the slips cordon at the start of the next over. Kohli and Konstas exchanged a few pleasantries with each other before their respective teammates and the umpire stopped them in their tracks.
Watch the video of Ricky Ponting criticising Virat Kohli for Sam Konstas' collision:
While analysing the incident in commentary on 7Cricket’s live broadcast with Australia, Ricky Ponting was quoted as saying, “Have a look where Virat walks. Virat's walked one whole pitch over to his right and instigated that confrontation. No doubt in my mind whatsoever.” The situation has drawn a lot of criticism for Virat Kohli not just among the experts, but also the fans on social media, while the spectators at the MCG didn’t like what they saw either.
Ultimately, Sam Konstas managed to score a fifty in his debut innings at the Test level, reaching 60 runs in 65 balls with six fours and two sixes, thanks to his attacking approach against the Indian pacers.
Below are the playing XIs of Australia and India for the fourth BGT Test in Melbourne:
Australia: Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
