Dinesh Karthik and Mark Waugh’s friendly banter during the second Test match between India and Australia took a turn for the worse when the former Australian opener snapped at the veteran wicketkeeper over a field placement discussion.
Waugh and Karthik, who had a lighthearted jab at each other during the first Test in Nagpur over a prediction made by the Indian wicket-keeper, were in the middle of another exchange when Mark became enraged and took it out on his Indian counterpart.
Waugh expressed his displeasure with how Australia had aligned their fielders against Cheteshwar Pujara as India were chasing 115 to win. The former Australian great was dissecting captain Pat Cummins’ ploy after Australia’s batsmen capitulated, going from 61/1 to 113 all out.
“I’m astounded at this field, honestly. I cannot believe you would not have a silly mid-off. You’ve got 100-something runs on the board, you’ve got Pujara who is struggling for runs, he does pad the ball away a lot on the off side. Surely you can have a bat-pad off side,” Waugh said on air.
It’s a bit of banter: Dinesh Karthik
Karthik then decided to weigh in and bombarded Waugh with a slew of questions, which, surprisingly, he refused to answer. What started as a healthy debate quickly became heated, with Waugh dismissing Karthik’s question. Here is the entire conversation.
Waugh: “I want a bat-pad off-side and I want my point up and sort of a coaching cover, that can stay there, that would be a reasonable field.”
Waugh became enraged when Pujara’s next shot went through point.
Karthik: “Mark, if you had the point up that ball probably would have gone to the boundary.”
Waugh: “If you had point up, it would have gone straight to him in the circle.”
Karthik: “You don’t think he would have found the gap on that one? He had time.”
Waugh: “We obviously think different but if I’m playing against Pujara, I want a bat-pad off-side because I think he’s a big chance of squeezing one out there.”
Karthik: “But there’s not for Rohit Sharma, not talking about that?”
Waugh: “We’re not talking about Rohit Sharma. he’s a completely different player DK.”
Karthik: “So you’re happy with the field? There’s nobody for Rohit Sharma, you’re okay with that? You’d do the same as a captain?”
Waugh: “I didn’t know this was a press conference.”
Karthik: “It’s a bit of banter.”
Sanjay Manjrekar, another commentator, sensed the tension and stepped in. “Ok, I’m going to step in here and read out the score,” he said, after which the topic was buried.
