How Sam Konstas' brutal assault rattled Jasprit Bumrah in the India vs Australia MCG Boxing Day Test

A 19-year-old Sam Konstas, on Test debut, took apart the best in the world Jasprit Bumrah, and it was a sight to behold.

On Monday, before he was confirmed to debut in the Boxing Day Test, Sam Konstas crowed about his ‘secret’ plan for Jasprit Bumrah, though he wouldn’t say what it was. “I am generally going to put pressure back on the bowler,” he said. “Jasprit Bumrah is the best in the world but I won’t watch too much of him. I have already seen him a lot.”

What was the last time a 19-year-old debutant did this to Jasprit Bumrah?(AFP)

Some of it was put down to the fearlessness and insouciance of a teenager, a lot of it to bravado and bluster. What plans could a 19-year-old have for the No. 1 bowler in the world, a bowler who had terrorised his more established teammates in the first three Tests, who had 21 wickets against his name at a crazy average of 10.90, who drove Australian cricketers and their fans to sleepless nights?

Opinion that Konstas had been talking through his hat gathered steam when he was beaten four times by Bumrah in the first over of the Test on Thursday morning. In the explosive pacer’s next over, Konstas attempted a reverse ramp. It was the 11th delivery he was facing in Test cricket. Predictably, he missed the ball by a mile.

What cheek, everyone gasped in the pressing box. Most likely in the thickly populated stands around the Melbourne Cricket Ground too.

Konstas attempted and missed another reverse in Bumrah’s next over. It appeared as if he was seized by nerves, that he was finding the Bumrah puzzle too hard to unravel.

Until.

Until, in Bumrah’s fourth, he did the unthinkable. To the first ball, he walked across his stumps and scooped him to fine-leg for four. Bumrah stopped in his tracks, gave him a knowing smile. Konstas looked the premier quick square in the eye, didn’t back down. The next ball disappeared over third-man for six, the reverse scoop coming off at the third time of asking. In the same over, another reverse, another four. Fourteen had come off Bumrah’s fourth over. Come again?

Come again, Konstas most certainly did. Come hard at Bumrah, that is.

One was convinced that after that over, Bumrah would recalibrate. He had too much skill, too many tricks, too much quality to allow an upstart to call the shots. And that too on debut, no less.

Sam Konstas didn't stop there

So Bumrah steamed in in his next over, ramping up the pace, letting fly one bouncer, forcing Konstas on the defensive. But only for that one over.

In the next, Konstas cut loose. The first ball was smoked through mid-off for four as he charged down the track. To Jasprit Bumrah, of all people. Everyone was trying to run away from Jassi, here was Konstas running towards him. You need to get your head checked, lad.

No, I don’t, sir, Konstas seemed to say. After getting into a tangle off the perfect slower ball, he smashed Bumrah over long-on for six, then backed away and steered an attempted full toss to square third man for four. The boundaries were flowing, you could scarcely believe what was unfolding before your eyes. Jasprit Bumrah, being taken apart systematically, without respect or care, by a lad who was playing the Under-19 World Cup at the start of the year. Who was dismissed without scoring in the final of that tournament, against India.

India’s helplessness as the Konstas innings gathered steam was unmistakable. After the first over, there was a sense of déjà vu, of a Nathan McSweeney reprisal. When the first reverse scoop was attempted, the slip cordon – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli among them – grinned. Those grins gave way to frustration, then mounting rage which manifested in a clash of right shoulders between Kohli and Konstas. Who was this guy? How could he treat our Jassi, 6-2-38-0, like this?

India waited for the Konstas mistake that they thought was inevitable, but while he did take his chances and had the rub of the green running his way, he didn’t make any fatal error. After the second of the reverse scoops, Rohit spread the field. He had a fine third-man; he also had a fine fine-leg for the conventional, walk-across-the-stumps scoop – in as much as that might be termed conventional. Konstas didn’t allow his ego to get the better of him. Instead of the inverse ‘V’, he started to target the traditional ‘V’, one step ahead of the Indians, one and a half step ahead of Bumrah, who must have been shell-shocked at the audacity as well as the execution skills of one so young and yet so uninhibited.

The ‘secret’ plan isn’t a secret any longer. Konstas has played his hand. Bumrah didn’t respond as swiftly as he would have liked. His ego, as much as anything else, severely dented, he will target comeuppance. This series has suddenly come alive in the most unexpected way.