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Australian cricketer Sam Konstas in action. (FILE photo)
Former Australia quick Brett Lee is all in favour of his country retaining Sam Konstas as one of the openers for the Ashes. The 20-year-old’s spot in the squad has been one of the hottest topics in the build-up to the series, and the ex-tearaway believes that he is the right man for the job. “I hope they go with Sam Konstas,” Lee told Sydney Morning Herald. “I think he’s the future of Australian cricket. If I’m coach or captain, I’m saying, ‘Sam, you’re playing all five Tests. I don’t care if you go duck, duck, duck, duck, you’re playing all five Tests,” he added.
Pundits have been hounding on his vulnerability outside the off-stump. “I’m a big fan of Sam Konstas, but he’s learning Test cricket on the run,” Kerry O’Keeffe would say. “These are two dangerous Tests. They’re ‘nickers’ Tests [where batsmen will edge to the slips], Perth and then Brisbane, a day-nightery.”
But Lee defends. “What that does is you’re not looking over your shoulder if you nick off [edge the ball to the wicketkeeper or slips]. You’ve got 10 innings and this is your summer. He might nick off, but he might not. He might get down on one knee and lap you for six.
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Every opener, he said, faces such tribulations. But the best ones find a way out of it. “You think back to [Michael] Slater, [Justin] Langer and Hayden. The ball was still swinging around and they found a way to navigate through that.”
Lee’s long-time colleague, Adam Gilchrist too sympathises with Konstas. “Maybe after the West Indies, a lot of people had written Konstas off … but I do believe he’s well and truly still in the running,” Gilchrist said. “Sam probably needs some runs just to solidify that position. This selection panel and this group seem to try and show faith in guys they’ve gone with and instil that belief and back them in. That’s the way I suspect it might go at the moment,” he said.
Among the critics, though, was Mark Waugh. “The selectors will want to see runs from him in the next couple of Shield games. If he doesn’t get a lot of runs, I think they might look past him. The man I would replace him with is Marnus Labuschagne,” he opined.
The Shield Games could do the trick, believes Nathan Lyon. “I wouldn’t look too much into that [Konstas’ scores against Western Australia]. It was a very naughty wicket [at the WACA]. It was wet, there were some big divots and it was quite challenging, even though I got 40 runs on it. There are three more [Shield] games to play out before the Test side gets picked.” He has managed only 58 runs in three Shield games so far, but has scored a hundred against India A in Lucknow.
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