Sam Konstas has revved up Australian cricket fans: how teen star’s fearlessness was created

From ramp shots to revving up the MCG crowd, Sam Konstas is the teenage cricket star making Australians stand up and take notice. Here’s the secret behind Australia’s new ‘fearless’ freak.

Shane Watson was perhaps the least surprised person watching Sam Konstas’ first ramp shot in Test cricket … but it still made him jump off the couch.

As Konstas was unleashing one of the most extraordinary debut Test innings ever seen, Australian fans packed into the MCG and sitting around television screens on Boxing Day were all asking the same question: “Who is this kid and why is he batting like this?”

If there is one man who knows the answer to this it is Watson, who has mentored Konstas since he was 15 years of age and dedicated himself to teaching him the superpower of fearlessness.

What Konstas attempted against Jasprit Bumrah, the world’s best bowler, in the second over he faced in Test cricket was the embodiment of everything Watson wished he was himself as a batsman. Well, almost everything.

“To just feel that was the right thing right there and then to take the game on and move the game forward and not just stand there like a sitting duck, it was fearless. A slightly different definition to what my fearless is, but that’s the beauty of a young 19-year-old who has just got nothing to lose and that’s exactly how he batted,” Watson told this masthead.

“That’s what we’ve always talked about is just that fearless mindset and that was fearless personified and then some.”

Watson published his brilliant book ‘The Winner’s Mindset’ two years ago, and unbeknown to anyone at the time, a 17-year-old Konstas was emerging as the live, real-time prototype of Watson’s teachings.

A magnificent cricketer in his own right, Watson by his own admission struggled with the mental pressures of the game and it was only well after his Test career had finished and he was in the twilight of his T20 franchise days that he had a chance meeting with IndyCar driver Will Power and his mental performance coach, Dr Jacques Dallaire.

Watson’s determination to channel the life-changing lessons he learnt about mindset into the mentorship of a protégé is the extraordinary hidden story behind Konstas’ MCG magic.

To understand Konstas’ audacious attempted ramp you must understand the four years of dedication Konstas has poured into harnessing Watson’s teachings about being in control of your mind.

“I know the impact this information had on my life. One it turned me around but it made me fully understand finally, how your mind works,” Watson said.

“The things that you aren’t in control of. How to really deeply define the best version of you so that is what you’re chasing every time you go out and try and perform.

“It’s about debriefing performances. Navigating yourself through failure to really reduce, if not eliminate stress, worry and anxiety.

Sam Konstas with mentor Shane Watson ahead of his Sheffield Shield debut. Picture: Getty

“You can see how empowering it is.

“It has been a four-year process of Sam just continuously working through the information, applying it, troubleshooting it, seeing how it works, how it doesn’t work and it’s been a journey for him to be able to get to this stage.

“The time where I fully realised that he was really implementing it was in the second innings for NSW in the first Shield game this season when he got his second hundred (of the match).

“The conversation we had after the first hundred, and then to be able to just do it again. Ball after ball.

“So that’s just how he thinks now. It’s really locked in.”

Australian batsman Sam Konstas plays a ramp shot. Picture: AFP

Even though Watson has been there with Konstas every step of the way, not even he could believe the relaxed, confident, smiling face he was seeing on TV belting out the national anthem at the MCG.

“It was like he was just meant for this stage. Just for someone to be, on their debut, whether you’re 19 or whether you’re in your 30s, to be so at peace and feel so comfortable when you’re in the environment just shows the caliber of the person he is and the performer,” Watson said.

Konstas’ routine is all about mindset. From his pre-match preparation in the changerooms where he closes his eyes and imagines what he’s going to do out in the middle, to the deliberate move to sprint out ahead of his batting partner to the middle to “assert his dominance” at the crease.

Australia's Sam Konstas tips hit cap to the crowd on the second day. Picture: AFP

As he watches the bowler charging in like a hawk, he mouths the words “where is the ball, where is the ball”.

Then there’s the ramps which Steve Smith could barely watch.

“Steve was having a heart attack watching,” Marnus Labuschagne told SEN.

“At one stage Smudge was like, ‘I’m handing in my resignation. I’m done.”

Speaking to Konstas in the lead-up to his debut, Watson knew the ramp was in the batsman’s kit bag of shots he might consider pulling out against the master Bumrah, but it didn’t lesson the shock of seeing it live.

Konstas tried the unorthodox shots from very early on against Bumrah. Picture: Michael Klein

For Watson, his reaction wasn’t so much about the shot, but what it said about Konstas’ fearlessness.

“I jumped off my couch,” Watson said.

“My definition of fearless is more so standing still with great intent.

“I knew that those shot options were available to him. But like it always is, you’ve got to trust what you feel is the right thing to do out there and that’s what one of the things we talk about is trusting your intuition and don’t let anything get in the way of you trusting what you feel and then fully committing to it. And he did that in every single sense.

“The beauty of Sam is he takes all the information in from the people in his inner sanctum, but then trusts exactly what he feels. That’s his definition of fearless and it shows the strength of character that he’s got.

“That’s what batters dream of having, that freedom. And he’s on debut.”

Originally published as Sam Konstas has revved up Australian cricket fans: how teen star’s fearlessness was created