Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has lashed out at Sam Konstas for getting himself involved in the verbal exchange between Jasprit Bumrah and Usman Khawaja as well. They exchanged words over time wasted in the final over of the day’s play at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) as well.
Throwing light on the verbal duels, Ponting told 7Cricket via Yahoo News: “I never like playing around with a game of cricket like that. It has a way of coming back and biting you time after time. They tried their best to take time out of the game. And this is what has happened as a result.”
“One guy you don’t want to upset is Jasprit Bumrah,” he further added. “The way he’s bowled and the fact he has got Khawaja out five times in the series. I didn’t like Konstas getting involved. That was not his battle to fight. It was between Khawaja and Bumrah. For the young man there, I hope that there was some talking to from the Australian dressing room last night because he should have stayed out of that, let his senior player handle the last couple of balls.”
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Former Australia batter Mark Waugh also stated that Sam Konstas needlessly landed himself in trouble by getting involved in a confrontation with the star speedster Jasprit Bumrah on Day 1 of the fifth Test in Sydney.
“You can understand Usman Khawaja trying to wind the clock down so he didn’t have to face another over, but then you have got Sam Konstas trying to get involved. I don’t know whether it is naive enthusiasm or that’s just the way he has always played his game through the juniors and likes to have high energy and get involved in the game, but really there was no need for Sam to get involved there,” Waugh said on Fox Sports
“I think he should have bit his tongue and it’s got nothing to do with him actually and it might have broken the concentration of Khawaja. If he keeps behaving like that he is going to have a target on his back for his whole career. I just think he is firing the opposition up. He’s fired up Jasprit. You don’t want to fire him up. I think Sam will reflect on that and think he should have minded his own business. I have just got to let the bat do the talking,” Waugh cconcluded.
