The 19-year-old opening batter Sam Konstas is poised to make his first appearance for Australia in the Boxing Day Test match against India, replacing Nathan McSweeney who played the first three Tests of the series. And former Australia captain Ricky Ponting said that Konstas is in for a stiff challenge against Jasprit Bumrah & Co.
Konstas will be partnering Usman Khawaja at the top, with Australia continuing to struggle to find a combination that can lay a solid foundation.
Konstas, who has only played 11 first-class matches, first grabbed attention when he scored a century (107) for Australian Prime Minister’s XI against India in the pink-ball warm-up match in Canberra.
“I’ve seen a lot, there’s a lot of talent there, no doubt about it,” Ponting said while speaking on The ICC Review.
“The way he played in the PM’s XI game, 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,” Ponting added.
The former Australian captain acknowledged that despite Konstas’s natural ability to play big koncks, the young batter would face considerable challenges ahead in his career.
“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.
“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, talking about the teenager who achieved a remarkable feat by becoming the first batter since Ponting in 1993 to score twin centuries in a Sheffield Shield match.
Ponting remains optimistic about Konstas’s readiness to handle the pressure and believes he will maintain his attacking style of play.
“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.
