Mark Waugh vents his frustration, clashes with Dinesh Karthik in fiery on-air exchange during IND vs AUS 2nd Test
Dinesh Karthik and Mark Waugh's friendly banter while doing commentary during the 2nd Test match between India and Australia took a turn for the worse when the former Aussie opener snapped at the veteran wicketkeeper over a discussion around field placement
Dinesh Karthik and Mark Waugh's friendly banter while doing commentary during the 2nd Test match between India and Australia took a turn for the worse when the former Aussie opener snapped at the veteran wicketkeeper over a discussion around field placement. Waugh and Karthik, who had a go at each other, albeit in jest – during the 1st Test in Nagpur over a prediction made by DK, were in the middle of a discussion when Mark got suddenly outraged and took it out on his Indian counterpart.
India, chasing 114 to win, were on 31/1 when Waugh expressed his displeasure at how Australia had alligned their fielders against Cheteshwar Pujara. Distressed by Australia's capitulation with the bat, which saw them go from 61/1 to 113 all out, Waugh was dissecting captain Pat Cummins' ploy.
"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 was then that Karthik decided to weigh in and bombarded Waugh with a series of questions, which surprisingly, he was in no mood to take on. What began as a healthy discussion soon reached a boiling point with Waugh playing down Karthik's question and how. Here is the entire conversation that took place.
Karthik: "I know you're not happy with the field set, let's go – what are you talking about?"
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."
As the next next shot from Pujara went through point, Waugh kind of was irate.
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.”
Waugh: "I'm going to limit your questions per session, you're going to get one question, right? No more."
Fellow commentator Sanjay Manjrekar sensed the tension and intervened. "Ok, I'm going to step in here and read out the score," after which the topic was buried.
This wasn't the first time Manjrekar and Karthik did not see eye to eye over a topic. During the first Test, when India were batting in the first innings, Karthik made a bold call saying that Rohit Sharma and Co. will required to bat only once in Nagpur, indirectly claiming that Australia will suffer an innings defeat. As it turned out DK's prediction did come true, but Waugh had cautioned him to not get too ahead of himself.
"We'll see about that DK; we'll see about that. "All I'm saying is never judge a pitch until two sides have bat. Let's see how things unfold. It's a big session, Australia won't let India get away. This Indian Test batters not as good as some of the Australians. I can't see two guys averaging 60," Waugh had said.
