Andrew McDonald reveals Sam Konstas' condition after Jasprit Bumrah, Virat Kohli’s 'intimidating' celebrations at SCG

Australia head coach Andrew McDonald gave a shocking statement when asked about Sam Konstas' confrontation with India's captain Jasprit Bumrah during the dying stages of first day's play in Sydney.

McDonald called the behavior of Indian players "intimidating" and backed Sam Konstas in the whole controversy. He further expressed surprise at ICC's decision not to fine any Indian player for their celebrations after the wicket of Usman Khawaja.

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Andrew McDonald backs Sam Konstas; blames Team India

After the second day of the Sydney Test, Andrew McDonald was asked about Sam Konstas' heated argument with Jasprit Bumrah during the final over of Day 1. Surprisingly, McDonald put all the blame on India and called their behavior intimidating.

"My conversation with him was around whether he was okay. Clearly, the way India celebrated that was quite intimidating," McDonald stated to the reporters.

The Australia head coach slammed the way Indian players swarmed around Sam Konstas during their celebration of Usman Khawaja's wicket and called it his own duty to ensure that the player is alright and in a good mental space.

"It's clearly within the laws of the game. There's been no charges laid by them but to have an opposition swarm the non-striker like that, we have a duty of care to make sure our player is okay and in a headspace to go out the next day and perform. That's all those conversations were," he added.

Is such behaviour acceptable?

When asked if such kind of behavior is acceptable, Andrew McDonald chose to leave it to the ICC to decide the future course of action. He showed full faith in the world body and the match referee Andy Pycroft to make the right decision going forward.

"It's clear that it's acceptable because there were no fines or punishments. I'll leave that up to the ICC. Obviously, Andy Pycroft being the match referee and umpires out there, if they thought it was satisfactory, then I suppose that's the benchmark we're playing amongst," the former Australia allrounder observed.

The Indian fielders including Prasidh Krishna and Virat Kohli were pumped after the dismissal. However, there were no fines from the ICC match referee Andy Pycroft.

What was the incident between Sam Konstas and Jasprit Bumrah?

Sam Konstas and Jasprit Bumrah were involved in a verbal altercation with each other in the final over of the first day. The altercation started when Bumrah was rushing in to bowl the final over while the batter Usman Khawaja was taking his time to ensure that India didn't bowl an extra over.

During this period, the non-striker Sam Konstas said something to Jasprit Bumrah and provoked him to waste a few seconds. Bumrah rushed towards Konstas and said a few words in anger while Konstas didn't hang back as well.

The umpire had to rush in to calm down the situation later. Later, Bumrah picked up Khawaja's wicket on the last ball of the day and immediately looked at Konstas at the non-striker's end. Indian fielders were absolutely pumped at the dismissal and celebrated wildly with Konstas still around them.