Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting reckons that the young prodigy Sam Konstas won't survive as an opening batter in the Test format if he continues to perform the same way he did at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). The cricketing world was not ready to witness the batting done by Konstas in the debut match in the Boxing Day Test. He smashed a fiery half-century in the debut match, scoring 60 runs off 65 balls. He continued to adapt the same kind of style in all his next performances but failed to perform in the remaining matches.
In the Sydney Test he was dismissed by Mohammed Siraj in the first innings and by Prasidh Krishna in the second.
Ricky Ponting said,
"I don't think he can survive as a Test opening batsman playing like that all the time. So he will learn a lot from the first couple of games that he played as a batsman, but just as an international sportsman as well, I think he'll learn a lot."
Further, Ponting said that this happens with many youngsters; they come and get overwhelmed by everything, and it takes them just a few games or series to actually work it out.
"It's a big stage, and he really enjoyed it at the MCG. But I've seen this happen a lot with young players. They come in, they get overwhelmed by everything a little bit, and it takes them a few games or a few series just to actually work out who they are and who they need to be for successful international players."
Although he failed to perform after his debut match, he succeeded in impressing the Australian crowd and selectors to confirm his place on the Sri Lanka tour, which will begin at the end of this month.
Steve Smith (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, McSweeney, Todd Murphy, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster