India vs Australia: 'Didn’t know it was a press conference’, Waugh, Karthik spar on air on Day 3 of Delhi Test

The Delhi Test between India and Australia saw the hosts secure a six-wicket win, taking an unassailable lead in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. But apart from Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin’s glorious run with the ball, one more thing became the talking point for cricket enthusiasts — the on-air clash between commentators Dinesh Karthik and Mark Waugh.

The incident occurred on Day 3 of the Delhi Test. The visitors were dismissed for 113, with the spin-duo of Jadeja and Ashwin completely dismantling the Aussie batting line-up. Waugh was dissecting Australia’s fielding placement for Cheteshwar Pujara, who played a pivotal role in taking India towards victory.

“I’m astounded at this field, honestly. I cannot believe you would not have a silly mid-off. You’ve got about 100 runs on the board, you’ve got Pujara who is struggling to score, 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.

Karthik chose this moment to ask his co-host some questions, which Waugh was in no mood to answer. Their discussion soon grew into an argument. “I know you’re not happy with the field set, let’s go — what are you talking about?” the India wicket-keeper said.

Waugh explained his opinion about keeping someone on the off-side. “I want a bat pad off-side and I want my point up and sort of a catching cover. That can stay there,” he said. As the next delivery was hit by Pujara through the infield, the former Australia all-rounder seemed tense. When Karthik tried to point out that if there had been a fielder at point, the ball would have gone for a boundary, Waugh disagreed. “If you had point up, it would have gone straight to him in the circle,” the Aussie legend said.

Karthik then claimed that there were chances that Pujara could have found the gap on that particular delivery. However, Waugh stuck to his guns and stated, “We obviously think differently 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.”

When Karthik questioned his decision and said that there was no fielder in that spot for Rohit Sharma, Waugh snapped at his co-commentator and argued that Sharma and Pujara were two different players.

Karthik continued to press his point. The wicketkeeper-batter asked Waugh if he would have kept the same fielding placements if he had been the skipper. To this, the ex-Australia all-rounder quipped, “I didn’t know this was a press conference.” Karthik replied that their discussion was just “a bit of banter.”

However, the ex-Australia all-rounder seemed to be in no mood to joke around and said he was limiting the number of questions Karthik could ask to one per session. “I’m going to limit your questions per session, you’re going to get one question right? No more,” he said. As the atmosphere grew heated, fellow commentator Sanjay Manjrekar intervened and read out the score, after which the issue was buried.

This is not the first time Waugh and Karthik have had a difference of opinion in the Border-Gavaskar series. During the Nagpur Test, the former Australia all-rounder disagreed with Karthik’s prediction that India would bat only once in the game and asked him not to get ahead of himself.

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