The Virat Kohli vs Sam Konstas altercation on Day 1 of the 4th Test between India and Australia became a big talking point among fans and experts. While Kohli was reprimanded by the International Cricket Council (ICC) over his act and was handed a 20 percent fine on match fee, Australian media isn’t entirely happy with the weightage of the punishment. The Friday morning papers, ahead of the start of Day 2 in Melbourne, went viral on social media with certian publications deciding to insult Kohil by calling him a ‘joker’. Former India coach Ravi Shastri, who is in Australia as an expert, labelled the local media ‘desperate’ over the nature of the coverage.
Sam Konstas went on a rampage on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test, especially targeting India’s marquee pacer Jasprit Bumrah. Kohli decided to get under the youngster’s skin but stepped over a line for which he paid a justified penalty. Shastri, hence, feels Australian media’s reporting is coming out of “desperation”.
“It’s a little bit of desperation. You are three Test matches into the series, the scoreline is 1-1. The Border-Gavaskar trophy is still not yours. You want to win in Melbourne. I’ve been to Australia many times, the whole country comes behind the team. Not just the crowd, the media… everyone,” Shastri told Star Sports on Friday.
“I’m not surprised. That’s why I said it’s a sense of desperation. If Australia had already been 3-0 or 2-0 up, the headlines might have been different,” he added.
Witht the series 1-1, Shastri feels someone had to be the target and the Konstas incident gave Australia a big opportunity to put Kohli in the line of fire.
“When you want to win badly… it not so often a country comes to Australia and win a series for 7-8 years. I know where it’s coming from, it has been there for a period of time, someone had to be the target, and they got the opportunity with the physical incident yesterday.
“When the physical contact happened, they were like, ‘this is our chance to get the fangs out, get the paintbrush out’ and start doing all sort of things,” he asserted.
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