Michael Clarke Defends Virat Kohli's On-Field Altercation With Sam Konstas
Former Australian skipper Michael Clarke supported the Indian star batter Virat Kohli for his on-field altercation with young debutant Sam Konstas. The 19-year-old made his debut in the Melbourne Test, smashing a half-century. Konstas smashed many big shots while facing one of the greatest Indian bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah. After that in the Test, Kohli hit his shoulder to Konstas while walking on Konstas's side and was involved in a fiery word war in the match. Konstas scored 60 runs off 65 balls in the first innings while failing to score in the second innings and got dismissed on 8 runs in the second innings by Jasprit Bumrah.
Kohli was fined 20 percent of his match fees for the on-field altercation with the debutant Konstas. The Indian star batter faced a lot of trolling and boos from the crowd for his behavior toward the young Australian batter.
Former Australian skipper Clarke backed the Indian star batter for his action and said he knew Virat very well and would have spoken to Sam after the game. The two have sorted it out, and that would have been fixed 100 percent.
"I know Virat as well; he would have spoken to Sam after the game. Virat's a great guy. So those two would have sorted it out. I don't know if Virat would have said sorry, whatever it was. Virat is not a nasty person. So that would be fixed 100 percent."
Further, he said that Virat was frustrated with the lack of respect that Sam was showing to the best bowler in the world in Bumrah.
"I think Virat was getting frustrated with the lack of respect that Sam was showing the best bowler in the world in Bumrah. I think that's what frustrated Virat."
Kohli struggled to score runs in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy since he scored a century at Perth. He has been continuously repeating the same mistakes as he is playing the off-stump ball again and again. He will be looking forward to scoring big runs in the Sydney Test, which will kick off on January 3, 2025.