Former Australian pacer Stuart Clark believes Sam Konstas‘s competitive spirit mirrors that of Virat Kohli. He suggests the two might even share a laugh about their on-field shoulder-barging incident, possibly before posing for a photograph after the Boxing Day Test.
Kohli deliberately bumped into Konstas during the fourth Test in Melbourne, an action that resulted in a 20% fine from the ICC and drew disapproval from Australian fans.
Despite this, Clark, a veteran of 28 Tests for Australia, anticipates a positive connection between these two highly competitive athletes.
“He’s (Konstas) a competitor. He wants to compete. He wants to do well. So, from that point of view, I think that incident (shoulder-barging) that happened in history… I think what you’ll find is, I wouldn’t be surprised if (Virat) Kohli takes him under his wing,” Clark told PTI.
“And there’ll be a photo of them after the game, smiling and laughing about it. He won’t take a backward step. No one expects Kohli to either. No one expects anyone to take a backward step. It was just not a great incident,” he added.
Clark has observed Konstas since his early teens in Sydney and found the player’s debut innings somewhat unusual for his typical style.
Clark describes Konstas as an aggressive player and felt his first innings deviated from this characteristic. He expressed curiosity about Konstas’s second-innings approach, wondering whether he would adopt an attacking strategy, play a traditional game, or showcase flamboyant cricket.
“He is an aggressive player, and that innings was a bit out of character. I am more interested to see how he plays in the second innings—whether he attacks, plays a traditional game, or goes out and plays flamboyant cricket. (David) Warner is special in his own way, and Sam will be special in his own way,” he said.
Clark highlighted Konstas’s strengths, noting his comfortable presence at the crease, impressive bat speed, and inherent confidence—qualities shared by all good players.
“He has loads of time at the crease and has got good bat speed. He has confidence, and all good players have that.”
The conversation shifted to the unfortunate run-out involving Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal, which resulted in Jaiswal’s dismissal for 82.
Clark provided his perspective on the run-out, stating he was unsure whether a run was possible. He also defended Kohli’s decision to return to his crease, attributing the incident to a genuine misunderstanding.
“There are two sides to the story. Firstly, I don’t know if there was a run there, and I don’t have a problem with Kohli running back in. It was a genuine mix-up, and you can’t blame Kohli for that,” he said.
Clark, who earned the Man of the Series award in his South Africa debut with 20 wickets, believes criticising Rishabh Pant for his ill-timed lap-pull shot against Scott Boland is unfair.
He emphasised Pant’s generally successful execution of such shots and cautioned against overreacting to occasional errors. Clark acknowledged the shot’s inappropriateness in that specific game situation but highlighted Pant’s world-class status.
“I think you’ve got to be careful with Rishabh Pant because he plays those (shots), and we all sit here and sing how good a shot it actually was. So, the fact he got it wrong… I think it’s more the timing of when he played the shot, which is the issue. We’ve seen him play it so many times and be so successful at it. We don’t want to crucify him for getting it wrong occasionally because he’s a world-class player. But just the moment in the game didn’t call for it, and he got it wrong,” he said, offering a different perspective.
Clark remains optimistic about India’s chances of saving the Melbourne Test, citing the pitch’s favourable batting conditions. He noted the pitch is flatter and truer than it used to be, although some balls are keeping low. He believes India’s strong batting line-up is capable of batting out a full day in their second innings.
“The pitch is a lot better (for batting) than it used to be. Yes, the odd ball is keeping low, but it is fairly flat and true. It would not be a surprise if a quality batting side like India bat out a whole day in their second innings,” he added.