Team India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak opened up on the early incident on Day 1 of the Colombo Test, where Yashasvi Jaiswal and Asitha Fernando had a fiery exchange of words on the field as well. The incident took place after Fernando had dismissed Jaiswal in an over where the batter had hit three fours. Jaiswal began to walk off when Fernando was celebrating with his teammates, and he seemed to have given the Indian opener a send-off too.

That somehow triggered Jaiswal, and he turned around and walked towards the bowler to confront him as well. There was nearly a clash of heads before the other Sri Lankan players intervene and diffused the situation and sent Jaiswal on his way. However, Kotak believed it was a “heat of the moment” incident but he also felt Jaiswal shouldn’t have gone so close to the bowler as well.

“I think the bowler commented something and it happened in the heat of moment. Obviously Yashasvi shouldn’t have gone so close to him but it happened in the heat of the moment,” Sitanshu Kotak said.

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Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s fast bowling coach Ryan van Niekerk too said the same. He also felt it was part of a hard day’s game and put it down to an “overflow of emotions” in the end as well.

“Look it is hard Test cricket, isn’t it?When you’re coming up against a team like India, you can’t sit on the back foot and just bowl at them. I think from our side, it’s bringing the challenge all the time, trying to make sure we can create something,” Ryan van Niekerk said. “And so, from my point of view, I’ve really asked the bowlers to stand up and create something. The verbals are probably an overflow of emotion. I’ll leave that to the match referee to deal with.”