‘I hadn’t seen that side of him’: After Sam Konstas’s debut, here’s what surprised mentor Shane Watson | Cricket News

Sam Konstas’ explosive batting on debut in Melbourne didn’t really come as a surprise for mentor Shane Watson. But what did, was the youngster’s showmanship during the Boxing Day Test.
Konstas, 19, lit up the first session at MCG with his audacious strokeplay, especially taking on Bumrah. He was also involved in a physical clash with Virat Kohli, after the Indian star (his favourite cricketer) gave him a shoulder barge. Apart from that, he was seen egging up the crowd on the field, and also had words to exchange with Yashasvi Jaiswal while fielding at silly point.
“My experience of dealing and working with Sam has been a very quiet, reserved personality,” Watson was quoted as saying ESPNCricinfo. “[He’s] a very deep thinker and certainly not an extrovert. But obviously what we saw in the Test match is that he absolutely is a showman. And he certainly rose to the occasion, as in he wasn’t overawed.”
“I know through my experience of debuting…you just put a lot of pressure on yourself because it’s your dream to be able to represent your country, wear the baggy green. But for Sam, it’s superhuman in a way that he sort of just didn’t have any of that at all. You can see it wasn’t put on. That’s just obviously who he is. And again, I hadn’t seen that side of him. It just shows that he’s built for this stage where most people it takes a bit of time to warm up to sort of get into that. Whereas Sam, he obviously just thrives on that.”
After handing Konstas his debut in Melbourne, Australia will do the same with Beau Webster in Sydney as allrounder Mitch Marsh was dropped for the final match against India. Fast bowler Mitchell Starc was also named despite dealing with rib soreness at the Melbourne Cricket Ground during Australia’s 184-run win ending Monday to take a 2-1 series lead.

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