Usman Khawaja reveals why he put his arms around Virat Kohli’s shoulder during a heated argument with Sam Konstas

Usman Khawaja had the best seat in the house when Virat Kohli shoved Sam Konstas off his shoulder on the first day of the 4th Test between India and Australia at the MCG on Thursday. Khawaja was Konstas’ partner on the non-striker side and was crossing the pitch like his partner when the incident occurred. With Kohli and Konstas wasting no time in verbally attacking each other, Usman Khawaja was one of the two to intervene in the heated argument – the referee was the other. At that moment, Khawaja put his arms around Kohli’s shoulders.

What was it about?

“I have known Virat for a long time. He came to the academy when I was in the U19s. We’ve been friends for a long time. So I thought, ‘Relax, go outside. I’ll talk to him.’ “You relax and I’ll sort this out. Yes, it was fine,” Khawaja said after the game.

When Khawaja was asked to detail what he said to Virat, he kept it secret. “You don’t have to know everything. Come on, guys, seriously. What goes on the field stays on the field,” the 38-year-old Australian opener said with a laugh.

The Kohli-Konstas episode proved to be the biggest talking point on the opening day of the Boxing Day Test, despite four of Australia’s top batters scoring a fifty each and Jasprit Bumrah once again becoming India’s savior with the ball, taking three crucial wickets including also the dangerous Travis Head. In fact, Khawaja was Bumrah’s first wicket as he missed a pull straight to KL Rahul at square leg.

India coach has no idea what was said

As far as the conversation between Kohli and Konstas is concerned, no one except the three present at the spot knows what was said and spoken. India’s assistant coach Abhishek Nayar is also not up to date. “Honestly, I don’t know. We were talking outside about something completely different, so I don’t know what happened, why it happened and if anything happened. But when you play a game like this, there will always be something.” “I’m very emotional but I’m pretty sure it’s not as big as it seems,” he said during India’s post-match press conference.

Kohli was fined 20 percent of his match fee and given a demerit point by the ICC for his actions, while Konstas escaped unscathed.