Former Australian captain Mark Taylor has urged teenage tyro Sam Konstas to prove he can bat in an “orthodox” fashion in Test cricket and warned the 19-year-old that he won’t make a long career out of blasting “quickfire 20s”.
Taylor, who watched Konstas in the flesh during the Melbourne and Sydney Tests from the Triple M commentary booth, also said he would have a “quiet word” with the opening batter about his “brash” interactions with opposition players if he was his captain.
Konstas is expected to be named this week in Australia’s squad for a two-Test series against Sri Lanka in Galle.
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But opinion is divided on the young gun from Sydney’s south after his eye-catching displays in the fourth and fifth Tests of the Border-Gavaskar series, in which audacious stroke play and a lippy encounter with Jasprit Bumrah became the talk of the cricket world.
“If [Usman] Khawaja and Konstas are going to be the opening combination for the Ashes and the World Test Championship [final], they’ve really got to bat together in Sri Lanka,” Taylor told Wide World of Sports.
“And I would be giving Konstas the opportunity to bat in the way that he batted throughout his career, which is not the way he has batted in Melbourne and Sydney. So I would very much like Konstas to go to Sri Lanka, open the batting with Khawaja and play in more of an orthodox fashion, which is the way he has played throughout his [pre-Test] career. That doesn’t mean he takes away his aggressive nature, but I’d like to see him play the way he has played for 19 years of his life, not the last two weeks.”
Konstas’ 65-ball innings of 60 on the opening morning of the Boxing Day Test was hailed as a circuit-breaker for Australia, who bagged victories at the MCG and SCG to take a 3-1 win and regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
In much the same way that David Hookes’ knock of 56 from 69 in the Centenary Test of 1977 is still being talked about decades on, primarily because of the five consecutive fours he struck off the bowling of England captain Tony Greig, the cricket world will be talking about Konstas’ debut ramp shots for decades.
During the New Year’s Test, the right-hander drew criticism from former England skipper Michael Vaughan over his final-day dismissal, who bemoaned on the Fox Cricket broadcast that Konstas had wasted his wicket with a “slog” and said he was “a better player than that”.
He’s made 113 runs at 28.25 from two Tests, with scores of 60, 8, 23 and 22.
“Test match cricket, people will continue to say it’s changed — it hasn’t changed that much,” Taylor added.
“Test match cricket is still made up of people making big scores, making big hundreds and taking 20 wickets.
“Sam Konstas won’t make a career, nor will anyone, out of making quickfire 20s at the top of the order. It has worked for the last two Test matches, where he made a quickfire 60 and a couple of 20s, [but] that won’t keep him in the side. He now needs to illustrate to everyone the sort of form that got him into the Australian side, which he did playing in a far more orthodox way.”
Bumrah has developed a reputation as a smiling assassin, but he looked nothing like a smiler and every bit an assassin when Konstas ran his mouth in the dying moments of the Sydney Test’s opening day.
Taylor is unapproving of the verbal skirmish Konstas had with Bumrah while at the non-striker’s end with two balls to play, which clearly made the legendary Indian paceman’s blood boil.
Bumrah had Khawaja caught in the cordon on the final ball of the day, and as the Indians mobbed Konstas and the Australian openers trudged off, criticism began raining down on the rookie.
“You don’t want to take away his confidence, but at the same time you want to make sure the brashness is channelled in the right way, and that is to perform at his best but also not to inspire the other team to play better,” Taylor said.
“I was always a person that kept a bit quieter on the field, and obviously Sam’s not that sort of person, so you’ve got to work with him individually.
“But you don’t want him distracted and not playing at his best, and you don’t necessarily need him firing up fast bowlers.
“So, yes, I would be having a quiet word, but in that quiet word I wouldn’t be telling him to stop being confident and brash and young, because that’s why he was brought into the side. There is a happy ground there somewhere.”
Reflecting on Khawaja’s final-ball dismissal in Sydney, Konstas admitted in an interview with Triple M this week that it was “probably my fault” his opening partner lost his wicket.