Bigger challenges than a debut with nothing to lose await Sam Konstas in Sri Lanka | Geoff Lemon
Bigger challenges than a debut with nothing to lose await Sam Konstas in Sri Lanka | Geoff Lemon
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The teenage prodigy who scooped his way into national consciousness on Boxing Day has a lot to prove on Australia’s upcoming tour and beyond. If you’re Sam Konstas, you’re used to things moving quickly. It took 718 first-class runs to get into the Australian team. It took 113 Test runs to potentially change the way it is set up. For almost two years since Travis Head won a shootout in India, the plan has been clear: on the next ragging Asian pitch, the usual No 5 would skip up the order, opening the batting to target rare overs of seam or to smack spinners using a harder ball. Usman Khawaja would partner him with graft, the veteran regular opener bridging the gap after David Warner’s retirement.
![[Sam Konstas]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d08a506576ae2e78d26a1df790fe9d4ef4d58e80/0_0_6502_4335/master/6502.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
A few weeks before Australia’s imminent series in Sri Lanka, though, that plan was turned upside down. Konstas is also an opener. Konstas is also in the squad. On the momentum of the moment, Konstas is going to play. So either Khawaja moves down the order for the first time in years, Konstas plays out of position in his third Test, or Australia abandon the Head plan that has sat there for so long waiting to be implemented. However it goes will mean a major last-minute change on the basis of a Test career that reads 60, 8, 23, 22.
![[Konstas reverse scoops on day one of the Boxing Day Test against India.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d59d57a217529b66b7695a154b7fc7ff3b6c0959/0_0_3682_2455/master/3682.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The numbers tell you how much this moment in Australian cricket is about vibes. There is such excitement about Konstas, buzz created by the appearance of a 19-year-old for whom reality has not yet clouded potential. People are switching on to see him make 9 from 14 balls in the Big Bash. People are getting shirts with his face on them. A guy chasing him for a photo jumped out of a car without applying the handbrake so that it rolled downhill into a collision.
