The lead-up to the Melbourne Test saw Virat Kohli firmly in the spotlight, with much of the attention coming from the Australian media. At the airport before the match, Kohli was surrounded by journalists, and the situation took an uncomfortable turn when a reporter seemingly tried to snap a photo of Kohli with his family.

This incident, coupled with the altercation involving 19-year-old debutant Sam Konstas and the intense media coverage directed at Kohli, has sparked a strong response from former India head coach Ravi Shastri. Visibly frustrated by the treatment of the Indian star, Shastri suggested that the Australian media was showing signs of “desperation.”

Shastri believes the Australian media wouldn’t have reacted as strongly to the controversy had their team led the series 3-0, or even 2-0.

“It’s a little bit of desperation. You are three Test matches into the series, the scoreline is 1-1. The Border-Gavaskar trophy is still not yours. You want to win in Melbourne. I’ve been to Australia many times, the whole country comes behind the team. Not just the crowd, the media… everyone,” Shastri told Star Sports.

“I’m not surprised. That’s why I said it’s a sense of desperation. If Australia had already been 3-0 or 2-0 up, the headlines might have been different.”

Someone had to be the target

Shastri stated that Australian media targeted Virat Kohli and pounced on him following the shoulder-bumping incident.

“When you want to win badly… it not so often a country comes to Australia and win a series for 7-8 years. I know where it’s coming from, it has been there for a period of time, someone had to be the target, and they got the opportunity with the physical incident yesterday.

“When the physical contact happened, they were like, ‘this is our chance to get the fangs out, get the paintbrush out’ and start doing all sort of things,” said Shastri further.