IND vs AUS: 'Tough Sport Played by Tough Men' - Gambhir on Konstas Feeling Indian Heat After Verbal Spat With Bumrah

Head coach Gautam Gambhir has weighed in on Sam Konstas facing Indian team heat after a verbal spat with captain Jasprit Bumrah during the recently concluded fifth and final Test in Sydney.

The final moments of the opening day became tense when the 19-year-old at the non-striker's end had a verbal exchange with the Indian pace spearhead. Bumrah was unhappy after Khawaja, who was on strike, looked to ensure that was the final over of the day's play.

Konstas was seen talking animatedly with Bumrah before the fired up pace spearhead dismissed Usman Khawaja off the final delivery of day one of the game at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Friday (January 3).

While Australian head coach Andrew McDonald said the Australian rookie was intimidated by the Indian team, India head coach slammed Konstas for his aggressive run-in with Bumrah, saying the 19-year-old "had no right" to talk to the Indian captain.

"It's a tough sport played by tough men. You can't be that soft, as simple as it can get. I don't think there was anything intimidating about it," Gambhir said in the post-match press conference when asked about the Indian players' aggressive response to Konstas' antics.

"He had no right to be talking to Jasprit Bumrah when Usman Khawaja was (wasting) time. He had no right and no business to be involved with Jasprit Bumrah. That was the job of the umpire," he added.

Earlier, the Australian head coach had said that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has effectively allowed the Indian cricket team "intimidation" tactics against the young opener Konstas.

Speaking to reporters, McDonald said, "I checked in with Sam to make sure he was okay. India's celebration was clearly intimidating, and we have a duty of care to ensure our players are in the right mindset to perform."

He added, "While everything was within the Laws of the Game and no charges were laid, having the opposition swarm a non-striker like that raises questions. We just wanted to ensure Sam was in a good headspace for the next day."

"It's clear that it's acceptable because there were no fines or punishments," McDonald further said. "I'll leave that up to the ICC and obviously Andy Pycroft being the match referee and the umpires out there. If they thought that it was satisfactory, then I suppose that's the benchmark we're playing amongst."

Throughout the series, Konstas has had altercations with Indian players with his first major incident occurring at the MCG when he was involved in a bumping exchange with Virat Kohli. Following the incident, Virat Kohli was fined 20 percent of his match fee and handed one demerit point.

"It is a tough sport played by tough men. These things happen. A lot of Australian players have done that in the past," Gambhir, who is known for his aggressive nature from his playing days, further added on the issue.

'Don't think so we need to make a big issue about it'

Gambhir, however, wished the attacking opener the very best for his future and hoped he would learn from the experience after the young batter scored a fiery fifty on his international debut in the Boxing Day Test at MCG in Melbourne.

"Test cricket is all about improving every day and sometimes you can't just go out there and keep smashing from ball one. You've got to respect red-ball cricket as well and hopefully he's going to learn from his experiences.

"And when you're playing against high quality attack like India, this will be a great learning for him going forward. I think whatever's happened is history. I don't think so we need to make a big issue about it. It is not that only these incidents happen in this city, it has happened in the past as well," he noted.

The match ended with Australia winning by six wickets for a 3-1 series triumph on Sunday (January 5). Australia qualified for the World Test Championship final following the triumph and would be defending their title against South Africa in June.

(With PTI inputs)