Australia’s teenager Sam Konstas impressed one and all with his batting approach in his maiden international innings. Opening the batting for Australia against India in the fourth Test, the right-handed batter smashed a 60 runs at a strike rate of 92.31. However, this was not the sole reason that the Australia star hogged a lot of limelight. Another big reason that put Konstas’ name in focus was his altercation with India’s Virat Kohli. In 10th over of the Australian innings, while crossing over, Kohli and Konstas bumped shoulders and quickly turned around to glance at each other, engaging in a heated exchange of words.
The face-off has become the topic of the talk, with former cricketers and experts also sharing their opinions on the matter. Amid such a scene, an old video of Konstas in which he picked Virat Kohli over Steve Smith is going viral on social media. Watch it here –
Virat Kohli was fined 20 percent of his match fee and handed one demerit point for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct.
The incident occurred on the first day of the Melbourne Test when Kohli made physical contact with Australia’s debutant by bumping his shoulder, leading to a heated exchange between the two players.
Australia’s Usman Khawaja intervened in an attempt to defuse the situation, according to the ICC.
Under Article 2.12 of the ICC Code of Conduct, “inappropriate physical contact with a Player, Player Support Personnel, Umpire, Match Referee or any other person (including a spectator during an International Match)” is prohibited.
Kohli accepted the sanction proposed by Match Referee Andy Pycroft, thereby avoiding a formal hearing. The charge was brought by on-field umpires Joel Wilson and Michael Gough, along with third umpire Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid and fourth umpire Shawn Craig.
