Sam Konstas opens up on altercations with Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah

Sam Konstas has said he had a ‘little chat’ with Indian superstar Virat Kohli and cleared the air after the Australian teen sensation was shoulder-barged the Indian superstar during the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. However, he did not get a chance to speak to Jasprit Bumrah after the Sydney Test.
Konstas, 19, had a breakthrough series after he was handed a Test debut in Melbourne where he went on to make a half-century with an aggressive approach that forced Team India to alter their gameplan. At the same time, he was involved in multiple altercations with Indian players, including Kohli and Bumrah.
After the MCG Test, which Australia won, Konstas said he walked up to Kohli, his boyhood hero. “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 told The Daily Telegraph.
He added: “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. 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. He’s changed the game with his batting style, the way he goes about things. He’s good in all three formats, for such a long period of time. Hopefully one day I can aspire to be that.”
Konstas added the use of the ramp shot against Bumrah was premeditated and in doing so, ‘played the role he thought was needed against the master Bumrah and that this is not how fans should expect to see him bat all the time’, the newspaper reported.
“I thought that was the best method at that time,” Konstas told the Sydney-based daily. “With me being new into the team I thought, let’s try put a bit of pressure because all series I don’t think we had a lot of intent like that. Maybe it was a bit too much. But I thought that was the best style at that time but on future tours, I think it will change with my game plans and how I go about things.”
Opening up about the controversy during the final over on Day 1 of the Sydney Test, when he exchanged words with Bumrah, Konstas claimed all he ‘said to Bumrah was that Khawaja was not ready to face up’. He, however, conceded he ‘shouldn’t have gotten involved from the non-striker’s end’.
“I feel like I love being in the contest and trying to put my best foot forward,” Konstas said. “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. If that happened again, maybe I wouldn’t have said anything.”

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