‘It doesn’t make you smaller if…’: Sunil Gavaskar’s brutal verdict on Virat Kohli’s altercation with Sam Konstas

A physical altercation between India’s Virat Kohli and Australian teenager Sam Konstas turned out to be the most talked about topic on the first day of the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The brief confrontation took place after Australia’s 10th innings on the opening day of the Boxing Day Test, when the players were crossing. Kohli and Konstas bumped shoulders while moving around the field during the throw-in initiated by the traveling star. Former Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar criticized Kohli for his act.

“Really, it can be avoidable. I mean, it’s like if you’re walking down a busy pedestrian street and you see someone coming towards you, you just move away,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

“There’s nothing, it doesn’t make you any smaller if you move away. That’s the problem. And you don’t want to see these things on the field. Certainly not,” he added.

“My first instinct, watching it without seeing the replays, was that both were looking down, so they didn’t see each other coming. Konstas was looking at his bat; Kohli had the ball in his hand and he was doing something. “But with these images, we will see who will be fined more tonight,” Gavskar added.

For his act, Kohli was fined 20 per cent of his match fee and given a demerit point although it was downplayed as an accidental bump by the 19-year-old debutant.

Kohli was ultimately charged with breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct by on-field umpires Joel Wilson and Michael Gough, third umpire Sharfuddula Ibne Shahid and fourth umpire Shawn Craig.

(With PTI inputs)