Cricket Australia (CA) has announced their playing XI for the Boxing Day Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Young uncapped opener Sam Konstas set to debut in the upcoming fourth Test match scheduled to take place in Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne from December 26.
The young opener who featured against India during their preparation match against Prime Minister XI made his way into the Australian Test squad after the exclusion of Nathan McSweeney. Australia captain Cummins who made his debut against South Africa in 2011 advised young Konstas to take the game on without overthinking.
“I think you always want to do well (but) I was saying this to Sam (Sam Konstas) the other day, I remember that as an 18-year-old, I was thinking I got a lot more leeway because I was young. It almost felt like if I didn’t have a great game, it wasn’t my fault. It was the selectors’ fault for picking me. I was like, ‘Well, they’re the idiots who picked an 18-year-old’. You’re so young starting out your career (and) it’s Boxing Day. It doesn’t get any better than this, so just enjoy the moment,” Pat Cummins told the media ahead of the Boxing Day Test.
Konstas has played 11 First Class matches in his career where he scored 718 runs. The Australia skipper is confident that the young opener will have to deal with the call-up coming up so early in his career and the team has been backing him up. The pacer had a talk with Sam Konstas and shared how he talked about his early inclusion in the game too in South Africa.
“It’s pretty awesome. I spent a bit of the time wondering why or how I was there (because) it happened so quickly. I just remember being really excited and I think, similar to Sammy this week, there’s a level of naivety that you just want to go out and play like you do when you’re a kid in the backyard. You just want to take the game on and have fun and … not overthink it. So that’s the message of Sam. That’s definitely how I felt as an 18-year-old. I was just really excited. And once the kind of game started, you go into game mode and it’s just like any other game,” Pat Cummins added.
The five-Test match series between India and Australia is currently levelled 1-1 after the third Test match at Gabba ended in a draw because of consistent rain. The ongoing Test series is important for both teams to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final which will take place in England.
Australia Playing XI for fourth Test against India -
Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland