Andrew McDonald revealed on Saturday that he had spoken to Sam Konstas after the completion of play on Friday and was clearly bemused by the fact the entire Indian team surrounded him after securing the wicket of Usman Khawaja to end the opening day.
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The Australian coach made a point of noting the Indians had not even been quizzed about the incident but also didn’t hide the fact he was bemused by the interaction.
“My conversation to him was just around whether he’s okay. Clearly the way that India celebrated that, it was quite intimidating,” McDonald said.
“So … I mean, it’s clearly within the Laws of the Game, within the rules and regulations, so there’s been no charges laid.
“But to have an opposition, obviously, swarm the non-striker like that, we have got a duty of care to our player to make sure he’s okay and in a head space to go out the next day and perform. So that’s all those conversations were.”
Asked whether he thought India went to far with their celebrations, McDonald said it was “clear” that it was deemed “acceptable” because there were no fines or punishments handed out.
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Indian fast bowler Prasidh Krishna was asked in his press conference whether the 19-year-old had got under his team’s skin and said he didn’t think so. At least, “not yet”.
“We enjoy the way he plays the game and we also like to play the game aggressively,” he added.
“As a team, we want to tell them we’re here and you can’t take us for granted. We’re all here, 11 of us, versus you.”
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Earlier on Saturday, a number of former Australian cricket players including Mark Waugh, warned Konstas could open himself to further attention from opposing teams if he didn’t change his approach.
“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,” Waugh said.
“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.
“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.
“He might learn from that Konstas. 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 and say, I have just got to let the bat do the talking.”
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Konstas did just that on Saturday before falling for 23 and was praised by Kerry O’Keeffe for not getting drawn into another war of words after he was dismissed.
“I thought Sam Konstas showed great restraint in the way he just walked off,” O’Keeffe said.
“They were running at him and he just said, no, its over. It’s been done. That was a big plus for S. Konstas.”
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