Australia batter Sam Konstas was involved in a heated incident with India stand-in captain and pacer Jasprit Bumrah on Day 1 of the 5th Test in Sydney on Friday. For the unversed, Bumrah was not happy with Usman Khawaja taking extra time to take his guard. However, Konstas decided to confront Bumrah. The incident only riled Bumrah up as he dismissed Khawaja off the final ball of the day’s play, before clashing with Konstas, who was at the non-striker’s end. Former Australia batter Mark Waugh has slammed Konstas for playing his part in riling up Bumrah, urging the youngster to mind his business.

“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. 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,” Waugh told Fox Sports.

Waugh also suggested that Konstas’ involvement resulted in Khawaja’s dismissal as the veteran might have lost his concentration. He also warned the youngster against throwing such antics in the future, and let his bat do the talking instead.

“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,” he added.

“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,” Waugh further explained.

Former Australia batter Mark Waugh and Mike Hussey had contrasting takes on India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant‘s shot selection, which led to his dismissal on Day 3 of the ongoing Boxing-Day Test. Pant’s innings of 28 ended when he over-balanced while attempting a ramp shot off Scott Boland‘s delivery, only to be caught by Nathan Lyon at third man. It was a big moment in the match as Pant and Ravindra Jadeja had put on a decent partnership following India’s late collapse on Day 2.

Pant was criticised for his shot selection by fans and experts, including Australia great Waugh, who questioned his approach especially with his team in a precarious position.

“That’s an awful shot when his team needed him to make an innings. I get it he’s an aggressive player and I want to see him be aggressive but you’ve still got to have some boundaries with the shots you play. There’s got to be a level of restraint and percentages in your favour and that shot falling down,” the former Australia batter said on Fox Sports.

On the contrary, Hussey sympathised with Pant over his shot selection and argued that he won’t change the way how the aggressive batter’s approaches his innings.

It is a difficult situation because it’s not a great shot and it’s not a great look, especially for an Indian team looking to fight hard. But you don’t want to put doubt in his mind, he’s at his best when he’s clear and free and playing his natural way. I’d be disappointed with the shot, I’m sure he’d be disappointed with the shot but I don’t want him to change the way he plays,” Hussey replied.

Waugh, however, sledged Hussey by reminding him that: “That’s why you’re not head coach, just assistant coach”.

“It’s a hard one though isn’t it because that’s the way he likes to play, he likes to play these crazy shots and if you start putting too much doubt in his mind then it might just confuse him more. It is a poor shot, don’t get me wrong,” Hussey added.

Rohit Sharma is going through a tought time in cricket. While his captaincy during India’s ongoing Test series against Australia has been receiving criticism, his batting has not been good either. He missed the first Test due to personal reasons and joined the team from the second game. Rohit scored 3 and 6 in Adelaide before disappointing with another low score, 10, in the next game in Brisbane. Come Melbourne and Rohit’s poor form continued here as well. He was dismissed for 3 runs off 5 balls. What looked poorer was the manner in which he got out. It was a harmless short of length ball outside off stump from Pat Cummins, and Rohit, in an attempt to pull it, got a top edge only to give an easy catch to Scott Boland close to the mid-on region.

Rohit has scored only 22 runs across 4 innings in the ongoing five-match Test series against Australia. Reacting to the batter’s form, ex-Australia players Mark Waugh and Kerry O’Keeffe expressed worry for the India captain.

“Unless Rohit Sharma can do something in the last three innings, I think his career could certainly be coming to an end,” Waugh said on Fox Sports.

“That was a really big mistake from Rohit Sharma. It is a nothing shot. It is one of his favourite shots, Rohit Sharma, the swivel-pull. It was too early in the innings. He has not got used to the pace or the bounce. It is a sad state for the Indian captain,” said Kerry O’Keeffe.

It is interesting to note that KL Rahul opened the batting for India in the first Test vs Australia in the absence of Rohit Sharma. Once the regular captain was back in the playing XI, he opted to bat at number 6 and let Rahul continue as an opener. However, in the fourth Test, there was a change in plan as Rohit went out to open the batting with Yashashvi Jaiswal with Rahul coming in at number 3 spot. To make things look worse, both Rohit and Rahul failed to play a noticeable knock.

Australia pacer Mitchell Starc was at his absolute best during India’s first innings in the ongoing second Test in Adelaide. Starc registered his career-best figures of 6/48 as Australia bowled India out for 180 after the visitors had opted to bat. According to former Australia batter Mark Waugh, Starc bowled the “ball of the century” when he dismissed Ravichandran Ashwin. The India veteran played a handy cameo before Starc trapped him plumb in front of the stumps with a sharp in-swinging delivery in the 39th over.

It was a gem of a delivery from Starc as Ashwin entertaining cameo of 22 came to an end. Waugh, who was on commentary duty, reserved blockbuster praise for Starc, speaking on-air.

“The ball of the century almost…that was almost unplayable,” Waugh said on Fox Sports.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan, on the other hand, questioned Ashwin’s decision to take the DRS, labelling it “That’s one of the best reviews I’ve seen”. “It may have been going under,” added Vaughan.

Travis Head blazed a sparkling 140 before Australia demolished India’s top order to close in on victory in the day-night second Test on Saturday.

At stumps on day two the visitors were floundering at 128-5, still 29 runs adrift, after a fiery blast under the Adelaide Oval lights from Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Scott Boland.

Rishabh Pant was on 28 and Nitish Kumar Reddy 15 as the hosts eye their eighth straight pink-ball victory in Adelaide to level the five-Test series after being crushed by 295 runs in Perth.

Australia were all out just after tea for 337 after resuming on 86-1, with Head producing a typically flamboyant knock on his home ground in front of a big crowd.

Batting at five, he scored at almost a run a ball, slamming 17 fours and four sixes, while Marnus Labuschagne chipped in a gritty 64 to build a first-innings lead of 157.

(With AFP Inputs)

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has defended star India batter Virat Kohli after his flop show with the bat in the 1st innings of the Perth Test against Australia. Kohli managed just five runs before fending off a climbing Josh Hazlewood delivery to Usman Khawaja at slip. His 12-ball stay in the middle extended his lean patch with the bat, having managed just 93 runs in the recent home series loss to New Zealand. The former India captain hasn’t scored a century since the West Indies tour last year.

Vaughan, however, refused to rule Kohli out just yet despite his failure in the 1st innings in Perth. He suggested it’s too early to judge Kohli, highlighting how the excessive seam movement made life difficult for most batters.

“It is too hard to judge him. Coming out of the crease in Perth when the ball is bouncing is a tactic not many try to pull off and he went for that. It bounced and he found the outside edge. But I think that now we have seen Australia (bat), this was clearly kind of a pitch where you had to be proactive because there’s plenty of balls out there,” Vaughan said on Fox Sports.

“So generally in this era of the game, when the pitch does anything, players try to play aggressively and try to do things to disrupt the bowler. It’s not a tactic I would have used. But…Virat Kohli is a legend of the game and you had to try to do something,” he added.

During the same discussion, former Australia batter Mark Waugh defended his compatriot Steve Smith, who was dismissed for a golden duck by Jasprit Bumrah. This was the first instance that Smith registered a first ball duck in home Tests.

“I don’t want to read too much into it today. I mean the pitch is doing enough at pace and Bumrah is a world class bowler. People have always questioned Steve Smith’s technique over the years, and he always responds. He’s a good problem solver,” Waugh said.

“I think his footwork at times, he can go too far across (to) the off-side. So I think it’s something he’s aware of. But I think today, the first ball, I don’t want to read too much into that.”

Former Australia cricketer Mark Waugh is considered by many to be one of the best slip fielders in modern cricket. Waugh played a major role in Australia’s dominance in the 1990s and his fielding was considered to be a major asset for the team. Indian cricket team fielding coach T Dilip compared KL Rahul to Waugh while analysing his catch during the first Test match against Bangladesh in Chennai. Rahul missed out on scoring a lot of runs but he took a sharp catch at second slip to dismiss the dangerous Mushfiqur Rahim.

Dilip said that Rahul’s catch showed a lot of good technique from the India batter and he even compared it to the strategy used by Waugh during his playing days.

“The best part of this catch was that KL was following with his hands. Nice, soft hands to finish it but by the time it is taken, you can see he literally finishes behind his body. If you keep having the proper position where you either open up the hips or slightly open the toe, it helps follow the ball even if it’s slightly behind. And that was the technique you see the great Mark Waugh used to do. Even when the ball goes behind the body, if you open that hip, that little door, it allows you to continue in that path. And that was a great example,” Dilip said in a video shared by the BCCI.

“Great in the slip cordon but also at mid-on, he showed that he is terrifically composed at the way he went for that catch because it was really dipping right in front of him, and to have that awareness to get his fingers underneath the ball and getting his timing right in coming down. With his height, I think it was a terrific catch to look at,” Indian cricket team fielding coach added.