Shane Watson believes his 19-year-old pupil Sam Konstas is better prepared for Test cricket than many older contemporaries because he had been working extensively on his mental skills for years before entering the spotlight this summer.
Whether the national selectors choose precocious teenager Konstas at the top of the order against India has been perhaps the most resonant question of the new season, and the cleanest possible generational break from the David Warner years.
Partnership: Sam Konstas receives his NSW cap before his Shield debut last year.Credit: Getty Images
While his former Test opening partner Chris Rogers has encouraged selectors to hasten slowly, there was near missionary zeal about the way Watson spoke of Konstas and the fact he has been refining the mental side of his game since the age of 16 – a process championed by the forward-thinking Greg Chappell but something Watson and others never contemplated until well into their careers.
“It takes a few years to be able to troubleshoot and navigate around your bad habits, old habits and default negative thoughts, just to be able to know what the right thoughts are for you to be at your best,” Watson told this masthead about mental skills work that has spun off a book and now a course available through his personal website.
Sam Konstas clobbers a ball through the on-side.Credit: Getty Images
“That’s why all the work he’s done has been working through being able to create this bulletproof cocoon around him, so all he has to do is repeat what he has to do, ball after ball.
“The mental skill of this is how we bring the best version of ourselves to the fore and most importantly when the pressure is right on, when the scrutiny is on, that’s where these skills come to the fore.
“He might get exposed, like all batsmen get exposed at Test level. If you are slightly off your game, the calibre of the Indian bowlers expose you for sure, but that’s anyone, from Marnus to Usman to Sam. India are world-class and over a five-Test series they will ask questions every ball. But I believe this is the perfect opportunity.”
Watson pointed to the fact that Konstas was dismissed by Scott Boland but then absorbed him far more successfully in the second innings of last week’s Sheffield Shield game at the MCG as evidence of his capacity to learn and adapt quickly within games.
It has been noted that Konstas was beaten on multiple occasions this year at the under-19s World Cup by deliveries moving back at him, something Watson was confident he would overcome.
“This is the perfect opportunity to blood Sam or someone like Sam because you have an ageing team. With Cam Green missing this summer, for me, it’s just a perfect opportunity.”
Shane Watson
“He’s a very quick learner, and facing Scott Boland in that four-day game, he’s so good, so accurate, asking questions every single ball,” Watson said.
“So for Sam to learn and make that adjustment from innings to innings shows he is working through ‘why and how did I get out and what can I do to give myself the best chance’.
“That innings he played to get through that spell from Scott is a great testament to where his game is at. All batters have a little weakness here and there, and the biggest challenge is clearing your mind and reacting to the ball coming down. When you do that, you have the best chance to negate what the bowlers are trying to expose.
“This is the perfect opportunity to blood Sam or someone like Sam because you have an ageing team. With Cam Green missing this summer, for me, it’s just a perfect opportunity.”
In January, Watson was an advocate for Steve Smith moving up the order to replace Warner, an experiment that lasted four Test matches before the former captain was asked if he wanted to move back down the order and he responded in the affirmative. Watson believes the sea change, though temporary, can help to resharpen Smith’s game at 35.
“With Steve it was an opportunity for him to feel like he had a new challenge. Batting at four where he was, you could see he wasn’t getting a lot of big opportunities to build those big innings because Dave Warner, Usman [Khawaja] and Marnus [Labuschagne] had been scoring so many runs in the top three. So I absolutely understand why Steve wanted to do it.
“What we saw with Steve at the back end of the summer was he was just a little bit off. He was mis-hitting some balls he normally wouldn’t, and that for me is a sign something was off. We know as an opening batter when the ball is moving around, it makes it more challenging if you’re slightly off and not executing like Steve normally does.
“But seeing him bat in the MLC [in the USA], Steve was at his best. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him scoring a lot of runs this summer.”
