Ricky Ponting has declared Sam Konstas must play against Sri Lanka in Galle, counselling Australia’s selectors to avoid the temptation of shuffling the batting order and to invest in the 19-year-old’s Test future.
Travis Head was Usman Khawaja’s opening partner in the back half of Australia’s most recent south Asian tour – to India in 2023 – and Ponting acknowledged the move worked out nicely at the time.
Sam Konstas had a whirlwind debut in Melbourne.Credit: AP
But he is adamant that Konstas needs to be given the opportunity to open the batting in foreign conditions as part of the team’s investment in him as a long-term player. Such a move would leave the likes of Josh Inglis and Nathan McSweeney on the sidelines as reserve batters.
“I think they’ll pick Konstas and I think they should pick Konstas,” Seven commentator Ponting said ahead of the two-Test series that starts on Wednesday. “He’s the one they’ve identified, he’s hit the ground running here in his first innings as well. He provided a lot of entertainment and a lot of buzz around that whole series.
“I think they need to play him, to be honest. It’s a hard place to play and a hard place to win. It’ll be hard place to bat for all of our guys, but especially some of the younger guys who haven’t experienced those conditions much in the past. But I think they should pick him, it’ll be a great learning experience for him.
“Getting out of Australia and away from some of that buzz and hype that’s surrounded him for the summer will probably do him some good as well, and he gets to learn a bit of what the travelling life of an international cricketer is all about and how hard it can be to play in different parts of the world. I’d be picking him if I was a selector.”
Asked about the option of moving Head up the top, Ponting said that the move needed to be considered against the wider value the series would offer to Konstas as a player learning his craft as an opener around the world.
“It probably suits him to be able to open in those conditions and get off and away against the new ball against the quicks and be 20 or 30 not out when the spinners come on,” Ponting said of Head. “That does suit him.
“But I think there’s an opportunity here with Konstas if he’s going to be a long term opener and I think everyone hopes that he will be,there’s a great opportunity for them to give him the experience he needs in these conditions.
“I think the order will stay the same. I think it’ll be the same with the option they have is maybe playing another spinner. They’ll have [Beau] Webster there who will give the seam up overs, one of the quicks is going to miss out, so Cooper Connolly might find himself in a 7 or 8 batting spot and bowling a few overs as well.”
Thirty years ago, Ponting went to the Caribbean as a teenager, although at the time there was not much chance of him playing in a series that saw Mark Taylor’s team wrest global Test supremacy from the West Indies.
He recommended that Konstas stick as closely to acting captain and batting maestro Steve Smith as he possibly can, to glean knowledge about dealing with spin on what are likely to be turning pitches.
“Sam seems like a different character than what I was coming into an Australian team,” Ponting said.
“He’s got a bit more about him, been on the front foot a little bit more than I was. My first tour to the West Indies in 1995 I knew I wasn’t going to be playing. I was one of the spare batsmen.
Travis Head and Usman Khawaja opened for Australia in India in 2023.Credit: AP
“When you’re coming into a tour like that, it’s very much sit back and wait your turn and don’t expect too much from training, don’t expect too much from the guys.
“[It’s] a bit different with Sam now, he’s the incumbent Test match opener, and he should be going away there just to get as much advice and ask as many questions as he can of the more senior players.
“Steve Smith has obviously been a great player and a very good player of spin, he’s done exceptionally well in India. If I was Sam, I’d be sticking close to those guys and trying to learn as quickly as I possibly can.
“It’s going to be hard. It’s hard work for any Australian that goes away on these tours regardless of how many games you’ve played in these conditions.”
Left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann will join the rest of the Test squad in Sri Lanka over the weekend after testing out a guard on his recently dislocated right thumb. Talented Victorian teenager Ollie Peake, 18, will also fly to Sri Lanka as a development player to take part in squad training.
The first Test starts on Wednesday.
