‘Sam Konstas Wanted to Waste Time’: Rishabh Pant On Jasprit Bumrah Argument

Rishabh Pant believes that Australian opener Sam Konstas was trying to ‘waste some time’ just before Stumps on Friday which led to his heated confrontation with Indian stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah. The Indian ‘keeper-batter said though he couldn’t hear what was said from his position behind the stumps, he was certain that Australia wanted to avoid facing another Indian over.

Bumrah had started his over, just the third of the innings, only a few minutes before the allotted time for Stumps. Usman Khawaja tried to sway out of the way before his fifth ball as he was starting his run-up, which made Bumrah shrug at him and the umpire. Konstas, at the non-striker’s end, got involved and said something to Bumrah, who replied back strongly.

The duo walked towards each other and had to be kept separated by the on-field umpires.

“I feel they had a little chitchat; they wanted to waste some time. I feel that’s the reason Konstas had a conversation with Jasprit Bumrah. He said something; I didn’t hear it. But I feel that’s the only thing which he wanted to do—waste some time so we don’t get to bowl one more over,” Pant told reporters on Friday.

Although Australia were successful in avoiding another over, Bumrah managed to hurt the hosts by getting Khawaja out on the last ball before Stumps. The previous delivery, soon after the confrontation, was easily negotiated but this one was full on the fourth stump and carried with pace to low to KL Rahul despite the slightly low bounce.

Bumrah turned to Konstas to celebrate and the rest of his team joined in. The youngster couldn’t do anything but walk off as Australia ended an otherwise successful day at 9/1 in the chase of India’s first innings score of 185.

Australian all-rounder Beau Webster hoped that Konstas could back it up on the field on Saturday.

“I’m not really sure (what happened), it’s an interesting one,” Webster said in the press conference. “(Sam’s) a very confident young man, and that’s what they do these days these youngsters, they get after it. He’s got all the skills and all the talent to back it up, so hopefully has a really good day tomorrow and puts a few runs on the board.”