Uncapped Australian batter Sam Konstas is raring to make his debut in the Test side. Konstas, who scored a blazing hundred in the pink ball warm-up game against India, felt that he was ready to play for the senior team.
Konstas has been the talk of the summer in Australia after the 19-year-old kicked off his rookie season at the Sheffield Shield with some terrific performances. Konstas built on that reputation with a terrific knock vs India on December 1, at the Manuka Oval in Canberra.
“I really want the chance, I love being challenged and hopefully that can happen soon,” Konstas was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia.
“I feel like I’m in a good headspace. It’s been the best few months I’ve had, and hopefully one day I can represent my country. It would be a huge honour to represent my country one day,” Konstas further added.
Before the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Konstas was pipped as the replacement for David Warner. The batter showed his quality against the pink ball while playing for the Prime Minister’s XI vs India. The opener took on Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna, dominating them after the first hour of play. Konstas brought up his century in just 90 balls, as wickets fell from the other end.
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Konstas slammed 14 boundaries and a six en route to his century at the Manuka Oval on Sunday. The batter opened the innings for Australian in overcast conditions, and remained steady at one end while the hosts lost 2 quick wickets of Matt Renshaw and Jayden Goodwin.
After a difficult period of first 10 overs, Konstas started cutting loose alongside Jack Clayton and added 100-plus runs. After Clayton fell, Konstas continued his barrage of impressive shots as Australia saw a mini-collapse on the other side.
The batter finally got out for 107 off 97 balls in the 38th over of the match with Australia at 205 runs. He was Australia’s 78th wicket to fall.
Australia squad for 2nd Test
Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster
