Given the national selectors’ prevarication over the opening batting position for almost three years, it borders on bizarre that the waft of rumour coming out of the Sri Lankan touring squad is that Sam Konstas will not be facing the new cherry at Galle on January 29.
Succession planning has not been this panel’s strong point. The inertia of positional occupation has been broken mostly by injury or retirement, rather than strong decision-making or giving in-form domestic batsmen a shot at the title – such as Cameron Bancroft in prime form last season, or Marcus Harris or Matthew Renshaw, both of whom have had periods of outstanding form.
They were unable to move David Warner on as his powers visibly waned. The solution after Warner’s eventual ride into the sunset was to give Steve Smith the one or two ticket. The Smith move was barely a qualified success, and to underline that folly, Smith reignited his middle order fire against India this summer with key runs that were crucial in Australia winning the series. What were the selectors thinking?
The next experiment was to give Nathan McSweeney the ticket, even though he had never opened the batting in first-class or List A matches. McSweeney had been making runs for South Australia, but exclusively in the middle order, so naturally he is a candidate to open in the India Tests facing some fairly serious fast bowling. Yeah, nah.
Enter Sam Konstas from Hurstville, a prodigal teenager with a combination of fearless and maniacal strokes. Maybe his 56 off 27 balls on debut in the Big Bash for the Thunder finally tipped the scales?Who’d have thought a specialist opener might open the batting in the modern game?
I’m still trying to get my neurons around the first hour of the Melbourne Test: it was parallel universe stuff, LeBron James meets Nathan Cleary meets Nick Kyrgios. India were flummoxed, the fast bowling challenge diverted, the opponent distracted.
Sam Konstas whips the ball on the leg side at the SCG.Credit: AP
Why then would there be the minutest notion of changing the batting order? The rumours have it that Travis Head will go up the order to make him more efficient against the new ball as the spinners will be bowling bucket loads of overs once the writing has been scuffed off the cherry. Newsflash: Sri Lanka may well open with spin, or at the very least have the tweakers at the bowling crease within the first half hour.
Opening the batting will require a different skill set from what was required during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Australia would be best suited by a right-left combination at the crease in any case: Konstas (right) with Usman Khawaja (left).
The medium to long-term notion is for Konstas to get experience in different conditions. The next tour to India is not so far away, and given the dearth of spinning pitches in Australia recently and his fledgling 13 first-class games, he hasn’t had to deal with dusty surfaces yet. Konstas has the ramps and rapid reaction time to take on fast bowling, but he needs dancing feet and supple wrists to generate power shots for long periods of time if he is to be successful on slow pitches against clever spinners. His scoring arc might shift 90 degrees or so from what he conjured in Melbourne and Sydney.
The assumption at the time of writing is that Smith will be fit and so Head will not be required to captain. Head as captain may change the dynamic as to who chooses batting orders, of course. The challenge for Head is to improve his skills against spin on pitches that don’t suit his “A” game.
Travis Head has had success at the top of the order on the subcontinent before.Credit: Getty Images
Konstas’ new opening buddy Khawaja may not have been the last name pencilled in for this tour, but he might just have been the second last. Surely, the name on the bottom of the team sheet was Cooper Connolly, who is listed as an “all-rounder”, despite having never taken a wicket in his four first-class games off 16 overs of slow left-armers and made 309 runs at the healthy average of 62. He got off to a reasonable start with 90 at No.7 and has made three half centuries, but his track record barely makes the starting blocks.
I am a NSW selector, so some may say I’m biased, but Test cricket is no place to experiment.
Contrast Connolly’s numbers with those Beau Webster has produced in 94 first-class games: 5393 runs at an average of 38.2 and 149 wickets. Learning a trade takes time. Webster actually performs as an all-rounder.
Webster bowled tidy medium pace as the grassy SCG demanded in the fifth Test against India, but he may well be called on to revisit his original finger spinning skill if Galle is served up as expected. Australia will play two pace bowlers, no matter what the pitch brings. Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland are both excellent reverse swing merchants, which leaves the spin bowling options to support Nathan Lyon. Matthew Kuhnemann is the favourite, thumb permitting.
Cooper Connolly has done some handy work in white ball cricket, but his first-class record as an all-rounder leaves a lot to be desired.Credit: Getty Images
If Head were to open, Australia would have to pick another batter; Josh Inglis perhaps, or given the fluid nature of the selectors’ definition of a batting order, then Konstas could bat at No.6 – and be useful in seeing off the second new ball. A third spinner will be talked about, but not played given Webster, Head and Marnus Labuschagne will provide enough overs to give the main men a rest.
Batting orders have not evolved as a lucky dip; they exist to maximise the best qualities of each batter. There are good reasons for dividing the top, middle and lower order. Smith has had a shot up front, the selectors threw a dart at the board with McSweeney, now there is the Head talk.
What will young Sam be thinking if he finds himself running drinks and getting Na Tree splinters in his backside after living the dream in Melbourne and Sydney?
With the World Test Championship five months away and the Ashes defence back home next summer, the Australian Test team needs Konstas to get as much game time as possible. There is no adequate substitute for actually playing a Test match.
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