‘Oh yeah mate, no stress. I get it’ : What young opener Sam Konstas told Australian selectors about his dropping | Cricket News

After making his debut in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, young Australian opener Sam Konstas has been dropped from the Australian team for the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle. While Travis Head, who was named as the opener for the Galle Test along with Usman Khawaja, made a quick-fire 57 on the opening day of the Test match on Wednesday, a lot of talk was about the omission of the 19-year-old from the final XI. Konstas had hit a half-century in maiden Test innings, which also saw him hitting Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah for 18 runs in an over, during the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and was expected to don the opener’s role along with Usman Khawaja during the Sri Lanka tour.
“A lot of the narrative has been around this tour doesn’t matter. It really does, it’s Test cricket. That’s our priority. Leaving Sammy out was a very difficult thing. There was a long discussion there. We feel though that he’s on a remarkable journey. He’s a hugely talented player, hasn’t played a lot in this part of the world but he’ll learn quickly obviously. There’s a lot to like and be impressed about Sam. One of the things is his ability to take things in his stride. It’s remarkable really, whether it’s playing in front of 90,000 and Jasprit Bumrah at the MCG or getting told that you’re left out of the Test. He was like, ‘Oh yeah mate, no stress. I get it,” said Australian selector Tony Dodemaide while talking with reporters at Galle.
The young Konstas has played in 13 first class matches and has scored 831 runs with two hundreds and four fifties. After his maiden fifty in Melbourne, the opener had scores of 8, 23 and 22 in his next three innings but drew praise from the cricketing world for his attacking style of play. Head, who played in the second Test during the 2023 Border-Gavaskar trophy in India as a middle order batsman in the first innings, played as an opener in his next five innings in India as an opener before he made way for David Warner as an opener in the WTC final. Since then Australia have tried Steve Smith too in the role and the team management had opted for Nathan McSweeney and Konstas as openers in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. “We won’t preempt what’s happening there, but clearly he’s done a lot right hasn’t he? He’s an exciting talent. We’re looking for those successor players to come in, there will be some turnover naturally in the next couple of years or so and he’s very much staked a claim. He’s a hugely talented player but he’s also got range in his game. He’s got a number of gears in his game which he’ll continue to develop, particularly with the experience here on these pitches that he hasn’t had a lot of exposure to yet. We like Sammy. It’s obvious that he’s got a lot of talent and hopefully he’s a long-term player for us.” added Dodemaide.
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Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who had backed Konstas for the opener’s role prior to the Sri Lanka tour, saw Konstas dropping as a missed opportunity.
“I don’t like it, to be honest … I just expected Konstas would play and would open the batting. In two Test matches time they are playing in the World Test Championship in England and Konstas will be straight back into the side then. We have seen Travis Head open in the sub-continent before and he did very well. No doubt he will look to get Australia off to a flyer and almost bat like he would in one-day mode, but I think there is a real missed opportunity for the Australians here to get to learn a bit more about Sam Konstas,” Ponting told Channel 7.
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