INTERVIEW
Follow Us“The greatest batting teenager since Ricky Ponting”
At 19 years and eight days and just six innings into his first-class career, New South Wales’ Sam Konstas made headlines, becoming the first teenager since Ricky Ponting to score centuries in both innings of a Sheffield Shield fixture when he scored 152 and 105 against South Australia.
It catapulted him straight into the selection mix for the biggest Test series of the Australian summer against India despite much more experienced campaigners in the mix.
“Yeah, for Sam [Konstas], that game was huge because he made two hundreds against South Australia,” Australia’s former U-19 head coach and NSW’s U-19 coach Anthony Clark told Cricket.com.
“Before that, people weren’t probably talking about him too much in terms of where he sits in the scheme of things. Going out and doing it in such a fashion is heartwarming. Both the hundreds were very different, which shows that he’s got different strings to his bow, which was excellent.
“He's got to go back and play wherever he's playing and make some runs and, you know, keep getting better as a player and use the experiences that he gets. If that happens to be later in this series or in 12 months' time or two or three years, then I think that time in between now and then, he will only be a better player because of that.”
Even before he launched himself at the highest level, the talks of Konstas as a young kid bossing around in NSW's U16 Green Shield helped him swap jerseys from a Cranbrook schoolboy to grade cricket, where he toughened himself up.
“When I first saw Sam, he was probably around 15 or 16, and you wouldn't say that he looked a million miles better than the other boys within his group. But there's one thing: he'd make a big score every time he seemed to put a game on. The fact that he continuously did this builds his technique, confidence, and belief in what he can do,” he reflected on Konstas’ younger days at the New South Wales age-group levels.
It was in 2022-23 when a young Konstas met his future mentor, Shane Watson, who not only transformed the way he went about things but also played a pivotal role in guiding him mentally to rise through the age-group level.
Purely on the back of Watson's guidance, the right-hander switched to Sutherland (Grade level), where his life revolutionised with a 1,000-run season that turned heads. It fast-tracked him to the higher level, with the New South Wales development side, where he started building a great relationship with the coaches.
By the time he was 17, Konstas' talks were quite evident, and they often revolved around astonishment about his ability to rack up runs. He worked closely with former Bangladesh first-class player Tahmid Islam, who has been his batting coach since then.
Not too many batters have captured the imagination of Australian fans in such a short span of time as the teenager has. His game was at the level which convinced Greg Shipperd to call him up for a Shield fixture when he turned 18.
“You know, he's a really likeable guy. He’s just turned 19, and he’s always got a smile on his face. He loves going to training, facing the best of bowlers, and getting challenged constantly. I think all of those things really help him to be level and grounded as well,” Clark said.
Even when he swapped the NSW developmental blues for the Australian yellow at the U-19 level, it was almost a seamless transition for the right-handed batter, who continued to rack up runs.
“In all the cricket that he's played leading up to it, he's always been a run-maker and done really, really well. He's someone that, like we've seen every time he gets given a level to progress into, he makes scores and makes runs,” Clark spoke highly of the NSW ward.
Across the two U-19 clashes against England in the longest format, the right-hander smacked 154 runs, averaging 44.66, with a highest score of 84*. He continued that same aggression and calibre at the Under-19 World Cup, where he scored a century against West Indies.
It came after a series of relatively low scores for the opener. Still, when the push came to the shove, the lanky opener brushed aside concerns with a century on a tricky wicket against one of the better pace units in the competition. That showed that the New South Welshman was ready to ride the highs and lows.
“He came back after that World Cup and, you know, got given more opportunities, and he showed that he could definitely belong at that level. When we played some games in the off-season with New South Wales, some practise games, and he went on the MRF trip over to India, he did really well there.”
Not just that, another thing that has been quite a pattern is how, at the senior level, Konstas has been pushed around in the batting order, sometimes batting at the top and other times in the middle order, like when he was made to bat at No.4 during the second ‘A’ clash against India. That didn’t, however, deter the right-hander from leaving a mark, with an impressive 73* in the second innings.
A few days later on, he was there opening the innings for Prime Minister’s XI, where he scored a 97-ball 107, playing quite a few shots for the highlight reel, including a scoop off Prasidh Krishna’s bowling. It has only been possible for him to be that impressive because he’s faced the likes of Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc in the nets.
“Every session that he would have had in the pathway, he would have faced the new ball. I know he was batting against Hazlewood, Starc and you know those guys who are training. He talks a lot about sticking to his method or his process,” he stated.
“That’s probably why he’s had some success when he’s batted in some other positions as well. I know he’s batted even in five or six and done pretty well.”
Unlike other openers in the country, Konstas, in his young career, hasn’t looked too troubled against spinners, which is, of course, a result of all his hard work.
What do you mean by hard work?
Before the last-minute change of venue for the U-19 World Cup in 2024, Cricket Australia (CA) had sent their squad, including the opener, to Sri Lanka to acclimatise to the conditions and improve their ability against spin.
That’s where he worked with one of the most underrated players of spin in Tests, Thilan Samaraweera, who kept a close eye on the proceedings in Sri Lanka. Over the next week or so that they spent in Sri Lanka, Konstas worked hard on his batting against spin.
But even otherwise, the conditions in Sydney, which has often aided spin at some point during the four-day matches, have forced the 19-year-old to work hard on his game against the tweakers.
“Whenever you play in Sydney, there’s always assistance for spinners, and he [Sam] would face spinners twice a week. Even if it's winter and running synthetic, we'll put some towels or some rubber things down to create roughs. I know that Sam likes doing that, and he’s been doing that since he was 16. He's certainly got a good game against spin,” he opened up on how his ward worked on tackling spin.
What makes it more astonishing is that the teenager has spent quite a bit of time alongside Nathan Lyon, facing him in the nets and off it, chatting about his game against spin. Even while growing up at the NSW pathway, the right-hander has had a go at Raph McMillan, one of the talented spinners in Australia’s victorious U-19 World Cup 2024.
“He faced spin bowlers. I know he talked to Nathan a fair bit in the off-season. They were bowling and discussed how to go about things,” he said.
“Sam would have faced Nathan [Lyon] quite a bit at our [NSW] sessions because Nathan trained here, playing the first two Shield games. Tanveer Sangha is also in the New South Wales squad; he’s played some white-ball cricket. He gets to face these guys virtually at all NSW sessions.”
What’s been a constant presence in his game is to keep things very simple.
“Sam's got pretty good belief in his ability. So, he just went into it, and what he does really well that, you know, whenever he, he speaks to you, he talks about: 'I've just got to keep it simple and go through my process'. You know, playing how Sam plays is something that we always talk about. He likes to keep things simple, that’s refreshing,” Clark reflected on what sets Konstas apart.
That’s where Clark insists that the 19-year-old has always maintained success and failure on the same pedestal without dwelling too much.
“I've seen Sam have periods where he hasn't done as well as he would have liked, and he never really dwells too much on it. As I said, he quickly brings it back to the most simple thing. He works a lot on the mental side of the game as well, which helps him quite well. Test cricket is a different beast. When you get to that level, there’s more eyes on you,” he adds with caution.
“I don’t think the level-up will affect him, he’s a great warrior. It is almost child-like excitement whenever he gets to bat. That’s never going to change.”
The hope remains that nothing can take the child-like excitement from Konstas, who is only growing from strength to strength. Like Clark, many Australian fans who have seen the 19-year-old will hope things don’t change.
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