Virat Kohli, Usman Khawaja and Sam Konstas.
Virat Kohli, Usman Khawaja and Sam Konstas. Image Credit: X

The opening batter of the Australian side, Usman Khawaja, was in the middle during the heated argument between the former Indian captain, Virat Kohli, and the home side’s new 19-year-old debutant opening batter, Sam Konstas, in the morning session of the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on the Boxing Day.

Usman Khawaja was a mere spectator when the argument started but tried to cool down both of the players along with the umpire, Michael Gough. It started off when Kohli was walking a different route at the end of the tenth over of the innings and somehow deviated his route to get into the shoulder of the young New South Wales opener as both banged into each other’s shoulder.

Konstas enjoyed a great debut in international cricket as he smashed a 60-run knock in 65 deliveries to settle the hosts for an 89-run opening partnership. He ramped the premier pacer of the Indian side, Jasprit Bumrah, for a boundary before scooping him for two consecutive sixes to celebrate a memorable debut for him.

“You don’t need to know everything”- Usman Khawaja

The altercation didn’t go well for Kohli, who was fined 20% of his match fees by the International Cricket Council (ICC) besides receiving one demerit point on the incident, which is his first offense in the last 24 months. Many pundits, however, had addressed it as a slap on the wrist.

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Usman Khawaja joked with the interviewers on what would be their potential thought process on the entire incident as he saw the light side of it at the start.

“What do you reckon happened? What? I want to hear your thoughts. What are your thoughts on the situation? I am interested. What do you reckon? What do you reckon happened? Up to that point, what would have happened? (The interviewer seems to be) spoken like a true diplomat, he is.” The left-handed batter expressed on ABC Sport at the end of the first day’s play.

The veteran batter revealed that he wasn’t aware of the incident at the moment but joined later on. He highlighted the word exchange between Konstas and Bumrah, with Kohli being there all the time as he ruled out any chance of tainting it as a physical contract.  

“At that moment, I didn’t see what happened. Like, I was walking the other way, and then I just went, ‘woah.’ I kind of looked back and saw like, they just as I turned around, I saw them collide, and I was like, what’s going on here? But yeah, it wasn’t.” Usman Khawaja explained.

“It was (like) Sammy (Sam Konstas) was going, he was on fire. His beans were going. I just came to diffuse the situation because I was like, I like the emotion. I like, you know, there was a bit of chirp going on between Sam and Bumrah and Virat during the whole time, but I don’t want it to be tainted by any physical contact.” The Pakistan-born Queensland batter elaborated.

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He recalled how they used to share the academy in the under-19 days and felt it was the reason he kept the debutant out of the entire scenario and handled the situation in a better way.

“I have Virat for a long time. He came to the academy when I was in the Under 19s. So, I have known him for a long time and have been mates for a long time. So I was like, chill, go out. I will talk to him. You chill, and I will sort this out. And yeah, it was fine.” Usman Khawaja pointed out.

“Something along those lines, yeah. You don’t even know everything. Come on guys, seriously. What goes on the field stays on the field.” Australia’s opening batter concluded.