Steve Waugh says Sam Konstas must respect Test cricket or he will not survive in the game

Former Test captain Steve Waugh has issued some blunt advice to young gun Sam Konstas about the style of play he must adopt if he wants to survive long term in the Australian Test team.

Australian Test legend Steve Waugh says Sam Konstas needs to park the aggressive red-ball cricket style for his own mental health and wellbeing, declaring he must show more respect to the proven successful batting approach in Test cricket or his career will suffer.

Waugh was emphatic in his praise for the incredible Test debut of Konstas at the MCG on Boxing Day, rating his “audacious and courageous” innings as the moment that turned the entire Border Gavaskar Test series in Australia’s favour during their epic battle with India last summer.

But Waugh is concerned that since that stunning debut Konstas has not shown any of the skill, technique or temperament he had seen watching the 19-year-old come through the junior and grade cricket scene in Sydney.

Sam Konstas was bowled leg stump by Scott Boland attempting to sweep the paceman in the NSW v Victoria Shield game. Picture Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Konstas was dropped from the Australian Test team for the two-Test series in Sri Lanka and returned to Australia for Sheffield Shield cricket where he was exposed by Test teammate Scott Boland while playing for NSW.

“I just hope (his debut) hasn’t messed with his head. He is only 19. I look back to when I was 19 and I didn’t know what I was doing really,” Waugh told SEN radio in Queensland.

“You need good mentors around you. He has taken on a big risk the way he has played and he has almost probably suffered for it already, dropped after a couple of Test matches and didn’t play against Sri Lanka.

“(He then) goes back to Shield cricket and doesn’t really know what he is doing. I saw the match against Victoria where the first over of a Shield game he tried ramping shots, reverse sweep and charging Scott Boland who is one of the best bowlers in the world.

“You've got to have more respect for the game, the game will bite you pretty quickly if you don’t respect it.

Steve Waugh has delivered a warning to Sam Konstas’ style of play. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

“I’d like to see him play a traditional innings in the next couple of matches and get his head right and get him back in the zone.

“I've seen him play grade cricket for Sutherland and he is technically very correct and plays traditionally. He has to get back to that because if he keeps playing the way he is he is not going to be successful.”

As much as Waugh wants Konstas to revert to traditional Test cricket batting, he accepts the importance of that debut knock with the flow-on effect in how his brave performance against Jasprit Bumrah relaxed an Australian top order that had mostly struggled until that moment.

But, for his own Test career prospects, Waugh says Konstas must put himself first now and focus solely on the style of play that is proven to be successful and ignore the undoubted head noise that has come since the glowing praise of the MCG match.

“I listened to all the commentators and judges and it was like they drunk the kool-aid all at once, they thought it was fantastic and this is great,” Waugh said.

“But you could see what was going to happen when it didn’t work and it’s not going to work consistently because it is too high risk against good bowlers.

Steve Waugh said media ‘drank the kool-aid’ about Sam Konstas after his impressive debut half century against India. Picture: Martin KEEP / AFP

“What I’m saying is, it’s fantastic what he did and he probably turned the Test match series in Australia’s favour but for him to be a long term Australian Test match player you have got to be more traditional than that.

“I am thinking about him and not the team.

“For his well being and I guess his mental health, he has got to get back to the way he played before because (this aggressive style) is a bit up and down and he is going to cop a lot of criticism which he has.

“As I say, as a 19-year-old, unless you are really, really mature it will effect you.

“I just hope he can pull it back a bit now and go back to his normal game because he is not going to survive in Test cricket playing that way.

“I think he will work it out, he is a clever cricketer and always scored hundreds through grade cricket so he will work it out.”