Gautam Gambhir responds to claims that India ‘intimidated’ young Konstas, says ‘It’s a tough sport played by tough men’
Gautam Gambhir responds to claims that India ‘intimidated’ young Konstas, says ‘It’s a tough sport played by tough men’
India head coach Gautam Gambhir issued a strong response to his Australian counterpart’s claim that the visitors had intimidated 19-year-old Sam Konstas on the opening day of the fifth Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
“It’s a tough sport played by tough men. You can’t be that soft. As simple as it can get. I don’t think there was anything intimidating about it. He had no right to be talking to Jasprit Bumrah when Usman Khawaja was taking time. He had no right, no business to be involved with Jasprit Bumrah. That was the job of the umpire or probably the guy who was batting at the other end,” Gambhir said, responding to Australia coach Andrew McDonald’s comments made on Saturday.
“I checked in with Sam to make sure he was okay. India’s celebration was clearly intimidating, and we have a duty of care to ensure our players are in the right mindset to perform. While everything was within the Laws of the Game and no charges were laid, having the opposition swarm a non-striker like that raises questions. We just wanted to ensure Sam was in a good headspace for the next day,” McDonald had said.
The incident in question involved India captain Jasprit Bumrah and his teammates confronting Konstas at the non-striker’s end following Usman Khawaja’s dismissal on the final ball of day one.
Konstas had reportedly provoked Bumrah with aggressive remarks while defending Khawaja, who had been accused of deliberate time-wasting to avoid facing more overs in fading light.
McDonald also raised questions about the International Cricket Council (ICC) not filing any Code of Conduct charges against the Indians following the incident.
“It’s clear that it’s acceptable because there were no fines or punishments. I’ll leave that up to the ICC and obviously Andy Pycroft being the match referee and the umpires out there. If they thought that it was satisfactory, then I suppose that’s the benchmark we’re playing amongst,” he added.
Australia beat India by six wickets in the fifth and final Test on Sunday to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by winning the series 3-1.
