Individual performances aside, the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy also hogged the limelight because of the infamous shoulder bump incident between Virat Kohli and young Australia opener Sam Konstas.

The 19-year-old, surprising India with his daredevilry against Jasprit Bumrah by taking the latter on with scoops and reverse scoops on Day I of the Boxing Test in Melbourne, was involved in an on-field exchange with Kohli soon after.

The former India skipper apparently shoulder-charged Konstas, which was followed by a heated verbal exchange between the two.

On-field umpire Michael Gough had to intervene to bring the situation under control.

However, Konstas revealed that despite the incident, he later went to speak with Kohli, who’s also his childhood hero. “I had a little chat after the game, telling him that I idolise him, and it’s obviously a huge honour playing against him,” Konstas told CODE Sports in an interview.

“When I did verse him, I was like, ‘Wow, Virat Kohli is batting.’ He just had that presence about him, all the Indian crowd getting amongst it, chanting his name. It was quite surreal”.

Kohli drew flak for that incident and was also fined 20 per cent of his match fees with one demerit point. Konstas, though, hadn’t read much into the incident then.

On this occasion, he even went on to compliment Kohli as a “down-to-earth” individual. “He’s very down to earth. A lovely person and just wishing me all the best, saying hopefully I go well on the tour of Sri Lanka if I’m in.

“My whole family loves Virat. I’ve idolised him from a young age and he’s a legend of the game,” Konstas expressed.

Konstas, however, regrets his involvement in the stand-off with Bumrah on the first day of the fifth and final Test in Sydney, admitting he was only trying to waste time towards the close of play in difficult conditions for batsmen. But ultimately, the Indian pace spearhead had the “last laugh”.

Near the end of the day’s play, Bumrah, looking to get in one more over, was met with resistance from the Australian openers, who were trying to waste time. This led to a fiery exchange of words between Konstas and the senior India pacer.

Two deliveries later, Bumrah, who was leading the side in the absence of an off-colour Rohit Sharma, took the wicket of Usman Khawaja off the last ball of the first day’s play.

After dismissing Khawaja, Bumrah walked in Konstas’ direction and stared him down, while a few other teammates of his also seemed to be frowning at the young opener.

Reflecting on the incident, Konstas admitted: “I love being in the contest and always try to put my best foot forward. But I feel like it’s probably a good learning for me. I was trying to waste a little bit of time out there in the middle so that they didn’t get another over. But he (Bumrah) had the last laugh.

“Obviously, he is world-class and he took 32 wickets in the series.”

Konstas seems to have learnt his lesson about not provoking the peerless pacer. “If that happened again, maybe I wouldn’t have said anything,” he said.