Sam Konstas: Are you on board with him?

[Foxx]

Warner? Sehwag? Gayle?
All 7000+ runs at an average of 40 or better, with 5 triple-tons between them.

He'll need to tighten up a bit technically to have a long test career. But he has plenty of time on his side to keep developing his game.

They're like Geoff Boycott compared to Konstas.

 

[iDon]

Ben Duckett - this from middle of the year,

Ben Duckett sheds light on his doubts about playing Test Cricket

It's not even two years since Ben Duckett returned to Test cricket, hoping - perhaps even praying - that his second crack would go better than his first.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Average down to 39.

That simply isn't good enough but if thats what England cricket wants, good on them. I am sure results are flowing in the win category for the Poms though

 

[PhatBoy]

Average down to 39.

That simply isn't good enough but if thats what England cricket wants, good on them. I am sure results are flowing in the win category for the Poms though

Good enough for what?

Dimuth Karunaratne has been the most prolific opener in the world over the last decade or thereabouts. He averages 39.


Duckett does the same only he scores at not far off a run a ball in a team who’s modus operandi is to score fast. Why wouldn’t it be good enough.

 

[Freo Big Fella]

Some of the pearl clutching in the media and commentary is ludicrous.

The only member of our top order to get the best of Bumrah over the course of the summer. More than happy to back him in rather than doing the kind of musical chairs we saw post-Hayden and Katich/Watson. Particularly given we're getting one more summer (at best) out of Usman.

 

[Bucking Beads]

He will have ups and down in his career. No doubt he will get dropped at some point. He needs to find the balance between his agression and proper batting. He has the confidence and swagger to succed.

 

[Saints4ever]

This is a question for anybody that has followed Sam closely at shield level.

Does he play with the same in your face aggression possibly perceived arrogance or was this a tactic he adopted to try and get at Bumrah?

I like his attacking style I’m not convinced that his perceived arrogant behaviour hasn’t been a bit of a front.

Happy to be corrected if I’m way off base.

 

[toml]

This is a question for anybody that has followed Sam closely at shield level.

Does he play with the same in your face aggression possibly perceived arrogance or was this a tactic he adopted to try and get at Bumrah?

I like his attacking style I’m not convinced that his perceived arrogant behaviour hasn’t been a bit of a front.

Happy to be corrected if I’m way off base.

Strike rate of 50 in the shield, so nope, this isn't the norm compared to most of his career. Played similar in the PM's XI match, but the was a glorified 50 over game after the first day was washed out.

 

[1990crow]

Feel he's got to tighten his game up a fair bit.
You can be aggressive, but it needs to be from a solid base and not just risk taking for the sake of it.

 

[allrighty]

I haven't read all of the posts in this thread but there is one thing I have not seen. That is that it may well be that he is following a directive to get out there and upset the bowlers' line and attitude, and do it quickly.

It came off, he made a few, but yes he has flaws.

I'd stick with him but focus on him being more horses for courses, not so one paced all the time.

 

[western royboy]

I haven't read all of the posts in this thread but there is one thing I have not seen. That is that it may well be that he is following a directive to get out there and upset the bowlers' line and attitude, and do it quickly.

It came off, he made a few, but yes he has flaws.

I'd stick with him but focus on him being more horses for courses, not so one paced all the time.

We don’t know so we don’t guess, however judging by Marnus and Smith’s reactions if it was a set plan not many knew about it and I think that is pretty telling.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

It's the pre-meditated stuff that I struggle with.

Charging, ramps, backing away. Shots he's decided to play pre-delivery. Feels like a game of Russian Roulette. He won on quite a few occasions. Some near misses. Only cost him his wicket once to be fair (today). Is that a sustainable way to play though? It would be difficult to bowl to and to set a field to admittedly.

I'm interested to see how he'd go just watching the ball and reacting to it. I suspect there'd be a fair amount of flair there anyway. Seems to have all the shots and is excellent between wickets.

Early days. He's shown... something at least. And there are no other openers who look likely at all.

 

[Black Diamond]

I haven't read all of the posts in this thread but there is one thing I have not seen. That is that it may well be that he is following a directive to get out there and upset the bowlers' line and attitude, and do it quickly.

It came off, he made a few, but yes he has flaws.

I'd stick with him but focus on him being more horses for courses, not so one paced all the time.

We don’t know so we don’t guess, however judging by Marnus and Smith’s reactions if it was a set plan not many knew about it and I think that is pretty telling.

It is a hard one and we don’t know. Every chance Marnus and Smith reacted as they did instinctively and not because they knew of the plan.

It is easy to throw their heads back given the dismissal.

TBH I struggle to believe Konstas would have runthe gauntlet again if he was told not to by Cummins or McDonald. And it did actually work today.

 

[99 Problems]

Results wise it’s hard to say he’s been anything other than a success so far. Debut innings was great. Almost a quarter of the chase was knocked off by the time he got out today. Even one of his failures in the first innings here only 2 others in the top 7 outscored him.

Absolutely it was a silly shot he got out to today. Both in terms of the actual technique and the game situation given he’d already put them on the back foot. He’ll make more mistakes like it yet given he’s 19 but that’s all part of the process.

Thought Cummins stood up for him really well in the press conference today and you could tell the way the team view him is very different compared to the public

 

[toml]

I'm more worried about the amount he has been bowled back through the gate the last year than the slogging stuff. It's easy to stop the slogging, it's not so easy to fix a technical flaw

 

[demondavey]

My guess Is they’ll open with Head and Kwahaja and bring in another middle order player meaning he misses out.

I’d rather him playing shield cricket than carrying drinks in SL.

No way Head is opening

 

[largebus]

The way he plays means you'll get some silly dismissals at times, you have to take the good with the bad.

I understand sticking up for your players but maybe McDonald should stop complaining to the media about the opponents "intimidating" him. It's a little patronising and ageist to Konstas, treating him like he's a naughty 10 year old.

 

[Teen Wolf]

I understand sticking up for your players but maybe McDonald should stop complaining to the media about the opponents "intimidating" him. It's a little patronising and ageist to Konstas, treating him like he's a naughty 10 year old.

No you clearly don't understand the concept of a coach sticking up for his players.

Andrew McDonald is doing his job. "Maybe" the ICC should do theirs, i.e. stop being chickenshit and appropriately sanction the India sooks for their ongoing flagrant Code of Conduct breaches.

 

[western royboy]

No way Head is opening

In SL it’s a huge chance

 

[The hands of stone]

This is a question for anybody that has followed Sam closely at shield level.

Does he play with the same in your face aggression possibly perceived arrogance or was this a tactic he adopted to try and get at Bumrah?

I like his attacking style I’m not convinced that his perceived arrogant behaviour hasn’t been a bit of a front.

Happy to be corrected if I’m way off base.

I watched him in the shield game at the MCG at the start of season
Had heard about him so fudged some fake apps in my calendar and went for a look

Short answer no .
It was evident that he had some technique flaws straight away.
Fair bit of bottom hand and his front foot planting pointed to cover on length .

Boland really worked him over for a few overs and got him , predictable lbw after beating him outside off a few times.
Didn't see all the second dig but it was steady .
Looked good where he could free his arms and through mid wicket on the arc . His straight shots did look a bit more like a slap rather then your techinical front high elbow , but that's almost becoming the norm now ....I guess .
Think he got 40 before he lost patience and skied one .

He did have a lot of time to play which is always a great sign for a prospect so looked a talent on that regard alone.
But none of the in your face stuff we have seen that has riled the Indians so much.

I was really caught off guard like everyone probably bar him boxing day .

 

[largebus]

No you clearly don't understand the concept of a coach sticking up for his players.

Andrew McDonald is doing his job. "Maybe" the ICC should do theirs, i.e. stop being chickenshit and appropriately sanction the India sooks for their ongoing flagrant Code of Conduct breaches.

I say that assuming the ICC will do nothing i.e. like they always have vs India.

McDonald could've just said: we back him in to do his job and the team to do their talking on the field, which they did in this case.

 

[revo333]

Does he play with the same in your face aggression possibly perceived arrogance or was this a tactic he adopted to try and get at Bumrah?

I like his attacking style I’m not convinced that his perceived arrogant behaviour hasn’t been a bit of a front.

The grade cricket podcast mentioned that many people who have seen him a lot before say that they are surprised with how he has behaved so far.

It most likely seems he was told to go out and bat how he did. I think after the first innings in Melbourne he no longer feared India and maybe that's why he ended up getting carried away a bit.

 

[irish]

Restraint might be a good plan for him .pick the ball to hit not every ball ! The tide is out about him at this stage

 

[Golumless]

Yup. Raw, but looks pretty ok at the moment - and the game seems to be moving towards having one guy who can score quickly in the opener positions.

 

[Freezin]

Considering how bogged down the Aust senior players were with Bumrah, kudos to the young fella for upping the tempo and trying to put some pressure back onto Bumrah.

Obviously not going to be sustainable, but surely the senior guys in the side should have been the ones trying something different....not a 19yr old debutant. Good to see Konstas put his country's needs before his own.....speaks highly of his character and hopefully one to be persisted with.

 

[Soggy2112]

100% yes. Everyone who knows what they’re talking about who has come across him on his way up have said that he’s got what it takes and you simply cannot get away with playing some of the shots he has played so far without having exceptional hand-eye. The question is can he do it for a long innings, and his record as a consistent run scorer no matter the level he’s played would suggest that he can.

In the first innings in Melbourne, the team was clear in the media that they were picking him because they felt that they needed someone to take the game to Bumrah. I doubt they knew exactly how Konstas intended to go about it, but clearly they wanted him to be aggressive. That innings was just about the most important innings of the series in that he took the new ball threat of Bumrah, which was the biggest weakness for us, and flipped it on its head and laid the platform for a match winning score. I also think that Bumrah has been so good, that simply playing conventional cricket was probably not going to work, and having someone who had the guts to play some unorthodox shots turned out to be what was needed.

However, what we also saw in that innings was a smart cricket brain. Once he got the fielders on the fence behind the wicket, he shifted his attack and started playing more down the ground. In the second innings in Sydney, he didn’t show that same kind of game awareness. The field was spread and the bowlers were clearly rattled and spraying it around, he could very comfortably have stood in his crease and played a bit more conventionally and still score at a rapid rate. He could have played more the way Trav does, in that he has his 3-4 shots he knows he can play and if the ball is in that zone he throws the kitchen sink at it.

Overall though, his method has been effective. In this test he scored the third most runs of any player on either side, and I think not by coincidence, one of the players who scored more, (Pant) did so with a very similar method. Also, of his four dismissals in Test cricket, only one has been by playing a non-conventional stroke.

What will be interesting to see is what does a more “normal” Sam Konstas innings look like at test level. This has not been the way he has played his whole career so far. Let’s not forget this guy is 19, and we are still waiting to see what the finished product of how his game will look like, but I think there is more than enough evidence to show that he will be playing at a high level for a very long time.