NEW DELHI: As Australian opener Sam Konstas made a dazzling debut against India in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Thursday, his knock was also marked by an on-field altercation with Virat Kohli.
Konstas threw India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah off track with more than a couple of ramp shots and with Australia at 44/0 after 10 overs, there was a heated exchange between Kohli and the Aussie opener.
Kohli barged into Konstas’ shoulder while passing by. Konstas didn’t like it one bit and had something to say to Kohli and then there were some words exchanged.
Later talking to 7Cricket, Konstas admitted that Virat Kohli is his favourite player in the world saying, “the emotions got to both of us”.
And now a video is viral on the internet, where Konstas, sporting Australia’s Under-19 World Cup jersey is asked to chose his favourite batsman over the others and the options ranged from Rohit Sharma to David Warner and Steve Smith to Virat Kohli.
The video starts with Konstas choosing Warner over Rohit among others but the teenager goes for Shubman Gill over Warner and then he chooses Babar Azam over Gill.
Konstas chooses Joe Root over Babar and sticks to him till the name of Steve Smith crops up.
Konstas chooses Smith over Yuvraj Singh, Brendon McCullum and Aaron Finch but when the name of Virat Kohli comes up, Konstas without the blink of an eyelid says “Virat Kohli.”
At the MCG, the 19-year-old blasted a hugely entertaining 60 off 65 balls in a debut to remember. His half-century came off just 52 balls — the third-fastest on debut for Australia.
The five-match series is locked at 1-1 after India won by 295 runs in Perth before being crushed by 10 wickets in Adelaide. The rain-affected third Test in Brisbane was drawn.