Simon Katich’s advice for Sam Konstas on how to tackle Jasprit Bumrah at MCG: ‘Try and rotate the strike’ | Cricket News

The top three of the Australian batting line-up have seemed to find it difficult to get going against Jasprit Bumrah this Border Gavaskar Trophy series. With Nathan McSweeney being dropped and teenager Sam Konstas being named as his replacement, former Australian batter Simon Katich spoke of what intent needs to be shown the batsmen, especially Sam Kosntas.
“I know all the talk is around having more positive intent, and I think that’s all well and good and it is certainly something they have to be mindful of,” said Simon Katich on a podcast with Sen 1116, ahead of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
“But against someone like Bumrah intent is not about just blazing him for fours, because he doesn’t bowl many bad balls. So a lot of that intent has to be about rotating strike and being able to defend really well, because you’re not gonna be able to play with any intent if you aren’t there after the tenth over,”
“That’s the challenge for all of these guys”
Talking about how the positive intent turned out to be a little problematic for the side, Katich recalls how the Australian side lost quick wickets as they were trying to score runs at a quick rate at the Gabba.
“The Australians came out with real positive intent (in the second innings of Brisbane) to try and score quickly, and look what happened”
In a recent interview with Fox Cricket, Sam Konstas was quoted saying “I won’t watch too much of him (Bumrah). I have already seen a lot.”
Katich feels that the teenager will have to be mindful of his approach in facing the guy who has had Australia on its heels every match, as there are not a lot of players who are able to pick his line and length quite easily.
“You’re not going to score many runs if you’re trying to take him on off the length, because he is so good.”
“I know the young kid’s got a lot of potential, and a lot of ability, but it’ll be a challenge because not many guys around the world have been able to do that to that quality of bowling,”

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