MELBOURNE: Former India pacer Irfan Pathan crticised star batter Virat Kohli for bumping into Australia’s debutant Sam Konstas on the opening day of the fourth Test here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Thursday.
The incident occurred after the conclusion of the 10th over on Day One when Kohli made physical contact with Konstas in front of a packed crowd of 90,000.
The moment sparked a brief exchange of words between the two players, prompting Australian opener Usman Khawaja to intervene and defuse the tension.
Virat Kohli’s act did not sit well with former teammate Irfan Pathan, who warned the trailblazer to avoid physical contacts on the field.
“Stay away from contact. You cannot contact a player. You can show aggression and support your players. He is a 19-year-old boy. When we were 19-year-old boys, Hayden, Gilchrist, and all used to make a lot of noise from behind but never touched us. So you could have avoided that on the cricket field," Pathan said.
“I have a question. If it had been Steve Smith, who is Australia's senior player, and one of our 19-year-old boys was making his debut, and he had come and pushed like that, would we have liked it? We would have not liked it at all. Same thing," Pathan added.
For the unversed, the fined 20% of his match fee and handed one demerit point for shoulder-bumping Konstast after the International Cricket Council (ICC) reviewed the incident under Article 2.12 of its Code of Conduct (CoC), which prohibits inappropriate physical contact in cricket and found Kohli guilty of the breach.
- Irfan Pathan
- Virat Kohli