Australia coach Andrew McDonald has accused India of attempting to intimidate Sam Konstas with the way they celebrated the wicket of Usman Khawaja late on the opening day at the SCG.
In a dramatic finish to play, Konstas got involved in a verbal exchange with Jasprit Bumrah over Khawaja's attempts to ensure it was the final over, with the umpire stepping in. Two deliveries later, Khawaja nicked the last delivery of the day to slip with Bumrah turning and advancing towards Konstas with visible aggression.
McDonald spoke with Konstas after the incident to make sure the 19-year-old had not been shaken by India's reaction to him.
"My conversation with him was around whether he's okay. Clearly, the way India celebrated that was quite intimidating," McDonald said. "It's clearly within the laws of the game, the rules and regulations. There's been no charges laid, but to have an opposition swarm the non-striker like that, we've got a duty of care to our player to make sure he's okay and in a headspace to go out there and perform."
Pressed on whether he felt India had gone too far, McDonald added, "It's clear that's acceptable because there was no fines or punishments, so I'll leave that up the ICC - Andy Pycroft being the match referee - and the umpires out there. If they thought it was satisfactory then I suppose that's the benchmark we are playing towards."
Konstas advanced to 23 on the second morning, which included using his feet to Bumrah to drive him down the ground and bringing out another scoop to deep third, before edging Mohammed Siraj into the slips. Bumrah, who was fielding at mid-on, did not immediately head towards the Indian huddle when the wicket fell and appeared instead to walk in Konstas' direction.
"We enjoy the way that he plays the game and we would also like to play the game aggressively," Prasidh Krishna said after the second day's play. "If we have somebody that comes up and says I can fight you, as a team we want to tell them we are here and you can't take us for granted. We are all here, 11 of us versus you. If you can be as aggressive, that's fine."
During his debut at the MCG, Konstas was shoulder-barged by Virat Kohli during his 60 off 65 balls in the first innings.
Speaking before play on the second day in Sydney, Ricky Ponting said he did not like the way Konstas had inserted himself into the situation the previous evening.
"I didn't like Konstas getting involved," he told Channel 7. "That was not his battle to fight. It was between Khawaja and Bumrah. So, for the young man there, I hope that there was some talking to from the Australian dressing room last night because he should have stayed out of it, let his senior player try and handle the last couple of balls. And of course, when you play with the game, the game has a way of coming back and biting. That happened to Khawaja last night."