Daniel Cherny: Aussie cricket fans can’t hang Cooper Connolly after embracing Sam Konstas

Cricket fans worldwide raved about the cavalier batting of Sam Konstas on debut. As DANIEL CHERNY writes, it’s why they can’t turn on Cooper Connolly after one rush of blood.

What was that?

It’s a refrain that would have been repeated around Australia as fans watched the audacious debut innings of an inexperienced youngster batting in his first Test.

And while it could quite easily refer to Cooper Connolly’s scattered and shortlived knock of four on Saturday at Galle International Stadium, people were saying the same thing when Sam Konstas first tried to scoop Jasprit Bumrah on the Boxing Day morning with a greenish pitch and the series locked at 1-1.

The clear difference was that the gambles from one tyro paid off, while the other did his dough.

Cooper Connoly trudges off after being dismissed cheaply.

Konstas proved the great disrupter, unsettling Bumrah by putting him off his length and easing the pressure on Usman Khawaja and those down the order.

The teenager’s 60 set the tone for what proved to be a magnificent MCG Test win, putting Australia on its way to regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

But it’s easy to forget the plays and misses, and the shots not quite middled that landed safely. Breathtaking as it was, Konstas’ innings in Melbourne was risky.

In that spirit, Connolly should not be too harshly judged for his cheap dismissal, the fourth of seven Australian wickets to tumble during the first session of day three in Galle.

The West Australian was always going to attract scrutiny given his selection eschewed orthodoxy in the sense that it brought a batting all-rounder into the side at No. 8 at the expense of a specialist bowler in Todd Murphy.

Cooper Connolly is one of the wildest Test selections ever. No first class wickets or tons. I’m shocked more hasn’t been made of it.

Less shocked that he never looked comfortable once in the 6 deliveries he faced. #SLvAUS

— Dan 🦙 (@dodgyllama) February 8, 2025

Serious question, has a player ever done less to deserve a Baggy Green than Cooper Connolly?

Wish the kid well but man, it’s a punt. 4 First class games. No hundreds. Hasn’t taken a wicket.

Remember when 10,000 FC runs didn’t guarantee you a cap?

— Jack Quigley (@Jack_Quigley) February 6, 2025

Too early to write him off after 1 innings but Cooper Connolly's debut innings did not show that he's got the judgement to play test cricket yet #AusvSL#CooperConnolly

— Hamish Laws (@Bypasser09876) February 8, 2025

Connolly in the field in Galle.

That Connolly entered the match without a first-class wicket only heightened the curiosity. In essence he’d been added to bolster the batting in the likelihood that runs would be at a premium.

On Saturday morning that scenario materialised, and Connolly couldn’t stop the rot. His sweep to get off the mark for four was not cleanly struck and across six balls he never really looked in control.

The shot that brought his downfall was a scrambled hoik to backward point off Nishan Peiris, the stroke of a lower-order slogger not a player with goals of being a serious Test batter.

However by the same token, Konstas had looked all at sea in his first over against Bumrah. This was a different type of challenge that lacked the primal cage warfare of 80,000 baying at the MCG, but facing spin as a new player to the crease on a Galle ragger is exacting in its own way.

Perhaps Connolly was too susceptible to a rush of blood, but he had seen others sweep and dance successfully.

Like with Konstas in Melbourne, there would have been method to the madness.

The execution was poor, but don’t put a line through the kid just yet.

Originally published as Daniel Cherny: Aussie cricket fans can’t hang Cooper Connolly after embracing Sam Konstas