Wellington, 10 February। A video footage emerged on Wednesday showing Australia batsman Usman Khawaja becoming touchy-feely and progressively moving his hand down to teammate Adam Zampa's buttocks before the second One-Day match against New Zealand last week.
It happened when the teams stood with arms linked during the national anthems, presumably to test the debutant's composure, and giving him an unusual "welcome" to the side.
New Zealand sports show "The Crowd Goes Wild" spotted the incident and posted the 12-second clip on its Facebook page.
To his credit, Khawaja was able to see the funny side of the footage being widely shared on social media.
Zampa was not put off by his teammate's affections, claiming two wickets on debut in a strong performance that helped him into Australia's squad for the World T20 in India.
Later on, Khawaja wrote on Twitter it was done out of fun.
"hahaha oh boy. Didn't realize there were cameras filming from behind," Khawaja tweeted on Wednesday.
"haha it was all consensual. Just having a joke with the debutant," the batsman said in second tweet.
Agency