Don’t play it again, Sam: Seven balls, three trick shots, 10 runs

Don’t play it again, Sam.

The ramp shot that helped launch Sam Konstas’ international cricketing career in such spectacular fashion is suddenly shaping as a major impediment in his quest to regain his position in the Australian team.

The 19-year-old opening batsman was skittled for 10 by Test teammate Scott Boland in the Sheffield Shield clash between NSW and Victoria at the SCG on Tuesday, after a whirlwind seven-ball innings.

After getting off the mark first ball with a leading edge for two, Konstas produced his trademark reverse ramp shot to scoop Boland’s second delivery of the match for a boundary over slips.

Next ball, he advanced down the track and blasted Boland past mid-off for another boundary.

But the entertaining mini-cameo came to an end on the seventh ball Konstas faced, when he stepped across his stumps and played an attempted sweep/lap shot, only for the delivery to bowl him behind his legs.

Sam Konstas is bowled by Scott Boland attempting to slog in the Sheffield Shield.Credit: Getty Images

It was hardly what the Test selectors would have been looking for as they weigh up their options for the World Test Championship decider against South Africa at The Oval in June.

Konstas was labelled a generational talent when he scored 60 in his debut Test innings on Boxing Day, a knock that featured a host of audacious ramps and scoops off the world’s best fast bowler, Jaspirit Bumrah.

But he was surplus to requirements during the recent two-Test tour of Sri Lanka, when Travis Head was promoted from the middle order to take on the new ball.

If Konstas is to win a recall, he will presumably need to put some numbers on the board, and last week’s 116 in the one-day match against Queensland sent a timely reminder to the men who pick the national team.

But his dismissal on Tuesday again raised the question of whether Konstas needs to be more circumspect when playing red-ball cricket.

Trick shots are risky, especially when the notoriously accurate Boland is steaming in with a new Kookaburra in his hand.

Konstas, who appears set to join an English county side in the lead-up to the World Test Championship decider, will be hoping to make amends in the second innings against Victoria, and it will be intriguing to see his response to Tuesday’s failure.

Speaking after his dismissal on Tuesday, Australian great Adam Gilchrist said he still expected Konstas to be in the selection frame for the world title fight against South Africa.

“That’s the way he is going about it, obviously,” Gilchrist said of Konstas’ attacking approach. “Time will tell whether it stands up, whether that is going to be happening at Lord’s in a few months’ time.

“It’s a selection panel that has thrown the rule book out of the window. They get their ideas and they go with them, so I am sure he will still be in the frame.

“I can’t remember [something like] what he did on Boxing Day morning, captivating the entire world of cricket that much since Shane Warne was around, pulling off magical manoeuvres like that. It has got everyone talking.”

Gilchrist, speaking at a Fox Footy launch in Melbourne, said the traditional, conservative approach of opening batsmen was largely a thing of the past, but said Konstas had to remember he needed to score runs and not just entertain.

“I think we have moved on from saying it has got to be done a certain way. It’s a new age,” he said. “As I say, it’s created interest. Everyone is talking about it.

“The amount of people on the back of this summer that said, ‘I don’t normally get into cricket, let alone Test cricket’ that were interested ... It has got to be good for the game.

“And then it’s up to [Konstas] to work out if he is not getting results, then not getting picked, whether he changes that. At the moment, it’s an exciting journey.”

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