Any time a 19-year-old makes a Sheffield Shield century, many people stand up and take notice because it is so unexpected. When Sam Konstas did it on Tuesday, gliding to 152 for NSW against South Australia, they took notice because it was expected.
Konstas made his first century for St George in the under-10s. When he was 15, he scored four tons in eight days across lower grade cricket in Sydney and the Green Shield under-16s competition.
The style of Sam Konstas in fully display earlier this week.Credit: Getty Images
The under-19 World Cup in South Africa earlier this year was witness to another hundred, as part of a victorious Australian campaign. Konstas has, at a time of Twenty20 and impactful innings of 20 balls or so, made hundreds his habit.
Moreover, Konstas has done so at a juncture where Australia’s selectors have started the pivot from a well-established generation of Test match talent to a look for the next long-term group. He’s meeting his moment much as Steve Smith, David Warner and Usman Khawaja once did, some 15 years ago.
“He’s now got an asterisk next to his name, there’s no doubt about that,” NSW selector Geoff Lawson told this masthead. “The change is coming and it’s nice to be a young man with some ability at the moment – both batting and bowling. Sam’s definitely on that train ride, it just depends which carriage he’s in at the moment.
“You watch what people do off the ball – not just their batting and bowling … and he’s just spot-on with the way he moved, the way he was in position, the way he expected things to happen. This kid just has a natural flair for the game, he understands it, and he’s 18 years old. That usually means you will use your opportunity.
Konstas has had a pair of contrasting mentors. His personal batting coach is Tahmid Islam, a former Bangladesh first-class player who has become a successful mentor in Sydney circles and crossed paths with Konstas after he won a scholarship to attend the prestigious Cranbrook School.
Some time into that relationship, Konstas crossed paths with former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson, who at the time was aiming to share a renewed focus on mental skills in cricket. The trio have enjoyed productive union since, underlined by how Tahmi was at Cricket Central to see Konstas make his century, while Watson tuned into a stream from India to watch his pupil fly.
“We talked through what he wanted to do with his cricket and how he wanted to elevate his game to the next level,” Tahmid recalled. I had dinner with Jim, his dad, and worked out a bit of program for him and then it was right into work.
”His work ethic and how much he wanted it always stood out. He’d always be there ready padded up at Hurstville Oval, and he’d never go into a game without ticking all these boxes – if anything was slightly off he’d want to make sure he got it right.
Tahmid Islam worked with Shane Watson for San Fransisco Unicorns at Major League Cricket this year.
“I do a lot of technical work with him, and then Shane helps him through the mental side of his game, which is fantastic. It’s been a great journey with the three of us. Shane was amazing to him in taking on a mentoring role and helped him a lot in the mental space and technical space too, to be fair. It’s been a fantastic journey.”
In the NSW pathway, Anthony Clark has seen plenty of Konstas while also coaching the national under-19 side to the Cup victory earlier this year. The regularity of big scores from Konstas has been like a drum beat up the age groups.
Sam Konstas greets his century.Credit: Getty Images
“Between me and a couple of the other pathway coaches, we always look at it like ‘death, taxes and another Sam Konstas hundred’,” Clark said. “He’s just been a run-maker for as long as I’ve known him, and made a lot of hundreds. At every level he keeps turning up and finds a way to make some.
“For me with Sam there’s a genuine love of cricket and batting, which I’m not sure all kids have these days. But he certainly, every net he has, is like the first one of the year and he can’t wait to be there. He’s got a lot of confidence in his ability as well.
“Not that he goes around shouting it from the rooftops, but he genuinely believes that he can do some things that other people can’t do, and statistics from across a number of years have shown that he can do that.”
Clark can remember watching Konstas, at 17, facing down Billy Stanlake in a second XI game. Few Australian pace bowlers are as tall or as quick, but Konstas handled Stanlake with aplomb.
“(He) made a 50 against him and a lot of the guys were saying how Billy was bowling fast, and when I asked Sam how it was, he just said ‘it was so much fun’,” Clark said.
”He’s a tinkerer, he’s always searching for something extra when he plays, but sometimes when things aren’t going well he can say ‘OK I need to strip it back, and this is when I was batting well’. He’s very open to learning.
“He faced 242 balls yesterday (on Tuesday) and I know that they talk about facing 200 balls in the Blues changeroom a lot, and I sent him the scorecard last night with the 242 circled and said ‘that’s the currency and you’ve done it with a bit of GST on the top of it’.”
On the night before the game, Konstas and Tahmid had dinner. Twenty-four hours later they were able to laugh about some of the conversation.
“We were both saying how he was going to get a hundred this Shield game, and it just came off, which was pretty amazing,” Tahmid said. “We were joking around about how if he sticks to the process and keeps batting time he’ll be able to go out and get a big one.
“But it really is such an underrated part of the game and what separates the good players from the greats, how you’re able to stay in the present and stick with the process when you fail a lot more than you succeed in cricket. It’s so special when you do succeed, because you go through so many hardships.”
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