‘If he’s not going to be needed, send him back home to bat’
With 19-year-old Australian opener Sam Konstas not making it to the Australian XI which played in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle, former Australian wicket-keeper Brad Haddin has urged the Australian selectors to send Konstas back home.
Konstas, who had scored a fifty in his maiden Test innings against India at Melbourne during the fourth Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, made way for Travis Head as an opener in the opening Test. With Head playing a 40-ball 57-run knock in the Test, Australia won an innings and 242 runs.
The middle-order batsman is once again slotted to play in the second Test starting Thursday.
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“We’ve got to remember he (Konstas) is 19, so if they’re not using him for the second Test I would send him home to play state cricket. He hasn’t played a lot [of first-class cricket] and the more he plays the better. He would’ve had a good couple of weeks over there [in Sri Lanka] learning. If he’s not going to be needed, send him back home to bat,” Haddin told Australian media.
Konstas had hit his maiden Test fifty during his maiden Test innings during the Melbourne Test. The innings also saw him hitting Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah for 18 runs in an over. The 19-year-old had scores of 8, 23 and 23 in the next three innings before being picked up in the Australian squad for the Sri Lanka tour. With the Australian selectors showing faith in Usman Khawaja and Head as openers at Galle and Josh Inglis in the middle-order, Konstas missed out on a spot in the team at Galle. Konstas, who plays for NSW, has so far played in 13 First Class matches amassing 813 runs and Haddin believes that the youngster should be available for NSW in their Sheffield Field match against Queensland in Brisbane starting Saturday, two days after the second Test begins.
“I think he’s been left out of the side because Australia had a plan a long time ago of how they wanted to play in Sri Lanka. We’ve seen how well Travis Head and Uzzie (Khawaja) played at the top of the order. I think he (Konstas) will come straight back in for the Test Championship (final),” said Haddin.
Australian captain Steve Smith had shown his faith in Konstas abilities. Smith, who hit his 35th Test hundred last week, spoke about his earlier days in Test cricket while speaking about Konstas.”He’s going to have a lot of practice over here if he doesn’t play, which in itself is great for development. I only have to think back to 2013, I think, where I didn’t play the first few Tests (in India) and just the amount of balls I was hitting in the nets and the skills I was able to develop from facing loads of net bowlers. So whether he plays or not, it’ll be a wonderful experience for him,” Smith had said last week.
