Former Australia captain and the ICC Hall of Famer, Ricky Ponting doesn’t think the young prodigy can survive as an opening batter in the Test format if he continues to bat like he did at MCG. The world wasn’t ready to witness Konstas going all guns blazing on his debut when he stepped in front of a sold-out crowd in the Boxing Day Test. With a ramp shot for a towering six over the head of Rishabh Pant, Konstas tonked the first maximum off the world’s current best pacer, Jasprit Bumrah.
He continued to adopt the policy of firing all cylinders on his way to a swift 60(65) before being pinned in front of the stumps by Ravindra Jadeja.
The quick-fire approach was a hit-and-miss for Konstas, considering his next set of performances. In the second innings, Bumrah pitched up a perfect inswinger to breach the gap between pad and bat to clean up Konstas.
On an unpredictable Sydney Test strip, it was Mohammed Siraj, who set him up in the first innings and Prasidh Krishan in the second.
“I don’t think he can survive as a Test opening batsman playing like that all the time. So he will learn a lot from the first couple of games that he played as a batsman, but just as an international sportsman as well, I think he’ll learn a lot,” Ponting said on the ICC Review.
“It’s a big stage and he really enjoyed it at the MCG. But I’ve seen this happen a lot with young players. They come in, they get overawed by everything a little bit, and it takes them a few games or a few series just to actually work out who they are and who they need to be successful international players,” he added.
Despite his underwhelming show after the MCG run-fest, Konstas did enough to impress the Australian selectors and confirm his ticket to Sri Lanka for a two-match Test tour beginning at the end of this month.
Australia Squad: Steve Smith (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Nathan McSweeney, Todd Murphy, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster.
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