19 hours Ago By CNBCTV18
Australian opener Sam Konstas regrets his stand-off with Jasprit Bumrah during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, saying that he was looking to waste time in the Sydney game. Konstas had a couple of impactful outings in the final two Tests as he made heads turn with his fantastic strokeplay. He also had a couple of run-ins with Virat Kohli and Bumrah.
"I love being in the contest and always try to put my best foot forward," Konstas told CODE Sports. Towards the end of the day's play, Bumrah met some resistance from Australian players, who perhaps didn't want him to get in another over in the day's play. Konstas and the stand-in skipper had a back and forth of some verbal blows.
Later, Bumrah got the wicket of Usman Khawaja off the last delivery to end the play for Team India on a high. Also Read: India rests these two key players, Smriti Mandhana to lead in ODIs against Ireland After Khawaja's dismissal, Bumrah walked towards Konstas and gave him a stare down. Reflecting on the incident, Konstas admitted, "I feel like it’s probably a good learning for me.
I was trying to waste a little bit of time there so they didn’t get another over. But he (Bumrah) had the last laugh. "Obviously he is world class and he took, what, 32 wickets in the series.
" Konstas seems to have learned his lesson about not provoking the peerless pacer. "If that happened again, maybe I wouldn’t have said anything," he said. Konstas was also shoulder-charged by Kohli, which was followed by a war of words between the two players.
Despite the episode, the Australian teenager did go and had a chat with his childhood her after the game. "I had a little chat after the game telling him that I idolise him, and it’s obviously a huge honour playing against him," Konstas said. "When I did verse him, I was like, 'wow, Virat Kohli is batting.
' He just had that presence about him, all the Indian crowd getting amongst it. Chanting his name. It was quite surreal".
Konstas added, "He was very down to earth. A lovely person and just wishing me all the best saying hopefully I go well on the tour of Sri Lanka he said if I’m in. "My whole family loves Virat.
I’ve idolised him from a young age and he’s a legend of the game.".
