He commanded attention. Didn’t demand reselection.
Sam Konstas’s sacking for the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle raised an eyebrow or thousand but perhaps it’s the next evolution in cricket.
Horses-for-courses batters. Rotation policies. Shuffling the decks. Test run rates have taken off like they’re strapped to rocket ships and certain players are better suited to particular conditions.
Australia’s selectors weren’t experimenting when they dropped Konstas, promoted Travis Head, in a move that paid off, and gave Josh Inglis a debut, which paid off like Prince of Penzance.
Australia wins everywhere except on the subcontinent and regardless of Konstas’s blazing Test debuts at the familiar ports of Melbourne and Sydney, Head and Inglis were more suited to Galle’s raging turner.
The panel knew they’d cop flak for ditching Konstas – he did nothing wrong! You’ll destroy the poor young fellow’s confidence! Scarred for life! Cruelty to 21-year-olds! – but they held firm and rolled the dice. They were rewarded with the equivalent of snake eyes: 6 (dec)-654.
Now, in-form batters have a history of being retained no matter the change in conditions. They’re too delicate to be temporarily omitted. Nothing has ever been pitch dependent. Bowlers haven’t been afforded the same luxury. Everything swings on the state of the 22-yard-strip.
When the dust bowl in Galle warranted only one paceman, Mitchell Starc, nobody wept for the potentially fragile mental state of Scott Boland, the hero of the SCG Test, hero of the people and hero to his teammates.
He’d normally be among the first blokes picked. If bowling selections are so flexible, why not batting?
Someone with a terrible record at a certain location – we’re looking at you, Dave Warner, averaging 26 in England – could be passed over as easily as Chris Waller leaving Winx out of a Melbourne Cup.
Why not get funky more often? Give Glenn Maxwell a Test cap in India and watch him reverse-sweep 200. Match situations never impact the batting order but surely different scenarios warrant a shuffling of the deck.
In a second innings, when Australia has a heavy lead, why not elevate one of the sloggers to the top, and so forth?
It rarely happens. And makes no sense.
Konstas resembles Doug Walters. Not in smoking three packets of cigarettes a day, one sternly hopes, but in batting in a devil-may-care style that makes him a fan favourite.
The young opener’s demotion in Sri Lanka was a surprise but didn’t quite prompt the degree of consternation around Walters’ omission from the 1981 Ashes touring party.
He’d topped Australia’s Test averages the previous summer. Then they dumped him.
About 50 folks staged a protest at Queanbeyan Post Office, which seemed as good a place as any to vent frustration.
The 35-year-old Walters had just made 42 for Goulburn against Canberra. What more could a bloke possibly do than cart around the finest leather-flingers of the ACT?
His backers launched into a peaceful demonstration that police let through to the ’keeper.
“I would obviously have enjoyed the trip, but the selectors obviously took into account my age – and previous performances in England,” Walters said.
In other words, Walters wasn’t the horse for that particular course. Nor was Konstas at Galle.
We’re ready, happy, willing and able to throw stones at selectors when they get it wrong but on this occasion, they deserve applause for getting it right. The problem is obvious, however.
Australia’s next red-ball contest after the Sri Lanka series is the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in June. Which ain’t Galle.
What to do with Konstas, Head and Inglis then?
Rod Marsh had a mantra of never giving a sucker an even break. He’d only relinquish his place if injured like Monty Python’s Black Knight.
“No stress,” was the reaction of Konstas, a new breed of cricketer with multiple formats, opportunities and tournaments to play. The cricketing universe is fluid. Modern-day horses aren’t as precious as their predecessors about changing courses.
They’re forever coming and going from different sides.
Konstas will likely return for Lord’s. Inglis will accept his return to 12th man duties better than Marsh may have done.
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