Sam Konstas played an enterprising knock on his international debut to stun world cricket as he scored 60 off 65 deliveries against India on day 1 of the boxing day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Konstas even took on India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and played scoop shots against him without any signs of fear.
Konstas hit Bumrah for two sixes during his stay at the crease and became only the second player in the history of Test cricket to hit the India seamer for two sixes in an innings of a red-ball game after Jos Buttler.
Channel 7 caught up with Bumrah and their presenter Trent Copeland asked him how did he handle the Aussie Young Turk.
"What about bowling at Sam Konstas on day one of this match? Have you ever experienced anything like that? We were sitting upstairs thinking, Goodness me, what is happening," asked Copeland before the start of play on day three at the MCG.
"I have experienced heaps of it," replied Bumrah. "I have played T20 cricket a lot, more than 12 years of T20 cricket. Interesting batsman. I always felt that I was in the game. I never felt that I am far away from a wicket. Initially, I felt that I could get him out six-seven times in the first two overs. But that's how cricket goes, some days it pays off (on Konstas' enterprising approach) and it looks good. Some days it doesn't and then you guys might be criticizing the same person (chuckles). So, that's how cricket is, I love different challenges and looking forward to a new challenge."
Australia Playing XI: Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
Bench: Beau Webster, Sean Abbott, Josh Inglis, Jhye Richardson
Support Staff: Andrew McDonald, Andre Borovec, Daniel Vettori, Michael Di Venuto, Clint McKay
India Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep
Bench: Shubman Gill, Tanush Kotian, Dhruv Jurel, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana
Support Staff: Gautam Gambhir, Abhishek Nayar, Ryan ten Doeschate, T Dilip, Morne Morkel