Young Sam Konstas has certainly got talent for international cricket and a “bit of an attitude to go with it” but it won’t be an easy debut for the teenager against a world class bowling attack, reckons legendary Ricky Ponting. Australia’s newest batting sensation Konstas, 19, is set to make his debut in Boxing Day Test against India. With only 11 First-Class matches under his belt, Konstas will take the opening slot alongside the experienced Usman Khawaja in the fourth Test starting here Thursday with Australia desperate to find the right combination at the top.
Konstas had previously failed to win favour from the Australian selectors who picked Nathan McSweeney for the first three Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but the latter’s ordinary returns forced them to give the New South Wales’ opener a crack at Test cricket.
“I’ve seen a lot, there’s a lot of talent there, no doubt about it,” Ponting told the ICC Review while talking about Konstas.
“The way he played in the PM’s XI game (he scored 107 against the Indians), the way that he was able to approach his first BBL game the other night … I know it’s different formats, but you can see that the talent is there and there’s also a bit of an attitude to go with it. And not a bad attitude, (but) an attitude that he knows that he’s good and he wants to show the world that he’s good,” added Ponting.
Konstas is the youngest batter since Ponting in 1993 in Australia’s Sheffield Shield to have scored two hundreds in a match.
Ponting, however, said the situation will be a challenging one for the right-hander who has shown having a knack for getting big runs.
“There’s still a challenge there. It’s a Test match. It’s your first Test match. You’re playing against some of the best bowlers in the world,” Ponting said.
“It probably doesn’t get any bigger in world cricket right now. It’s like any other country debuting an opening batsman against our bowling attack, when you’ve got (Mitchell) Starc, (Pat) Cummins and (Josh) Hazlewood there. (Jasprit) Bumrah has obviously been the standout and probably the leading fast bowler in Test cricket at the moment. So Konstas will have a great challenge there, no doubt about it,” he added.
But Ponting expressed confidence that Konstas will be ready to face the heat and will be keen to play his aggressive game.
“I don’t think he’s the sort of guy who’d be too worried about it. I think he’ll be excited by it. He’ll want to try and put some pressure back on with the way that he plays,” Ponting said.
“Like he’s not anyone that’s going to sit there and be five off 50 balls. He’s either going to be up and going or he’s going to be out a bit earlier on than that.” “He’ll try and find ways to impose himself on the contest, which is one of the things I think everyone likes about him,” Ponting added.
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