The thing about being in your late teens is that you are constantly oscillating between acting like a teenager and acting like an adult. Sam Konstas came face-to-face with this reality after the Barbados Test, where he scored 3 and 5 in two innings. It was a tricky pitch. He was playing only his third Test. But this is an Ashes year, which means he will not get more time on the teenage quota – that is, unless he pays the selectors for their trust in him in the remaining series.
In a sense, both Australia and Konstas are similarly desperate for things to work. The opening position has been a revolving door since David Warner’s retirement in January last year. Someone as brilliant as Steve Smith, with all his might, couldn’t figure out this problem for his side. Konstas’ audacity to take down Jasprit Bumrah in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) for 18 runs in an over, after smashing twin hundreds in a Sheffield game the same year, made him seem like just the right antidote for Australia’s problem, despite having played a grand total of only 18 FC matches.
But that’s the funny thing about failure. The flaws automatically become more inflated. The achievements less so. Speaking to the media after Australia’s win in the opening Test, head coach Andrew McDonald said Konstas is aware of the fact that he needs to step up in order to be on track to open in the Ashes later this year.
“The players are the harshest critics really when all is said and done,” the head coach said. “We’ve had some conversations around potentially if you’re in that situation again what does that look like and that’s what experience is. It’s learning from previous events and trying to implement a way through that.”
Konstas had an ugly struggle while batting during the second innings. On the very first ball, he nearly chopped one on, went on to survive two dropped catches, took ten balls to get off the mark, and desperately attempted to get the ball to hit the bat wherever it could. He scored more runs off his pads than with his bat. All this drama ended with one inside edge disturbing his wickets, sending him away with only five runs to show. McDonald believes Konstas needs to understand what to serve to which ball, which, once he does, would help him find the balance that teenagers hardly enter the system with.
“It felt like he was stuck at times and he was over-aggressive and then [he] underplayed. It’s really that balance and tempo. He’s got that there and that’s a step up to Test cricket. He’s got a really good partner down the other end [in Usman Khawaja] that over time, I think, will play out. That’s all we ask for — a bit of patience and time with a young player coming into Test cricket.”
In his three-game-old Test career, Konstas has fallen to incoming deliveries four times. Shamar Joseph, who got him twice in the first Test, seemed to have known that incomers fall in Konstas’ blind spot. Konstas himself would have known how cruel it becomes once your Achilles’ Heel is laid bare like this. McDonald admits it, too.
“I think on that type of surface [in Barbados] it’s an issue for everyone,” McDonald said. “He’s been on the record around working on his technique in the winter and some small adjustments and how they play out in training versus under extreme pressure is always a different sort of pattern.
“He knows his deficiencies but, from a batting perspective, I encourage all players to learn to play with their deficiencies. I don’t think there’s such a thing as a perfect technique. If that’s what you’re looking for then I think you’re looking in the wrong place.
“He’ll learn to play with what he’s got. We’re a team that encourages run-scoring. Did he lose his intent at certain times in that innings? Was he looking at his defensive layers rather than potentially putting some pressure back on? I think that’s really the balance he needs to strike. I think he’s good enough. It’ll just take some time for him to adapt.”
