Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Tensions between Indian touring party and Aussie media continue to bubble away

India’s travelling party have delivered a fresh snub to Australian media as tensions threaten to reach boiling point in Melbourne just days out from the crunch Boxing Day Test.

The tourists have been in Victoria since the weekend, but have already been involved in a series of clashes with Australia’s press pack.

Megastar Virat Kohli blew up at a Channel Nine journalist and camera operator as players touched down in Melbourne on Thursday, before English-speaking journalists were denied questions at a press conference with Indian spinner Ravindra Jadeja.

In the latest spot-fire, a team of tourists, including Indian journalists and some members of the Indian team’s communications team, have reportedly pulled out of a scheduled friendly Twenty20 match against Australian reporters.

The match has been put on by Cricket Australia and was set to be played at Junction Oval on Sunday.

India held a press conference with fast bowler Akash Deep on Sunday, but Cricket Australia officials flagged with journalists beforehand he would only take questions in his native language because he spoke limited English.

Their conference with Jadeja on Saturday was cut short because he needed to rush to the team bus, despite the event reportedly starting almost half-an-hour after the scheduled time.

It is understood captain Rohit Sharma will answer questions in English at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday, the day before Australian counterpart Pat Cummins is due to speak in Melbourne.

The growing tensions come with the series tied at 1-1 ahead of two deciding Tests in Melbourne and Sydney during the festive period, where the most Australian eyeballs are locked on its cricket team.

India’s touring party has taken a siege mentality to most of the series.

Kohli’s clash with journalists in Melbourne came after he angrily reacted towards camera operators and photographers at a Mumbai airport for filming his family as he headed to Perth.

When they landed in Perth, The West Australian revealed Indian team had sent the WACA Ground into lockdown for their pre-series training camp, with staff banned from using their phones and construction workers at the venue ordered to not let their eyes linger on the next-door nets.

Now-retired spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was also pulled from a pre-match press conference and replaced with new bowling coach Morne Morkel less than an hour before it began in Perth.

Hundreds of Indian fans flocked to an advertised open training session at Adelaide Oval before the second Test, only for BCCI officials to then scrap planned public sessions in Brisbane and Sydney.

“The net sessions are very private. This was the first time ever that I saw so many people at the nets,” Sharma said in Adelaide.

“There’s five days of Test cricket, they can come and watch us there.”

Fans will be able to watch their heroes train outside the MCG this week because the nets are visible from public areas.