Konstas’s secret to success: Keeping it simple and playing life with a straight bat

At a time when most of Australia couldn’t have been keener to see him play, Sam Konstas just took his demotion in his stride.

“I’ll be as famous as you are in 10 years.”

Surely Sam Konstas was kidding. Maybe he was just being kind. Just to appease my own vanity for a change, I’m going to assume he meant it, a bit, a very little bit.

It wasn’t so much his complimentary tone but more his body language, though, that I was more impressed with, and also more focused on.

Here was a 19-year-old who had just learnt about being left out of the playing XI for the first Test.

Here was a kid who’s taken Australian cricket and, if anything, all of Australia by storm. To the extent that thousands flocked to see him bat at the MCG for only his second Test innings. And a few more to witness Konstasmania in the flesh at the SCG.

You’d think he couldn’t have been keener to play. At a time when most of Australia couldn’t have been keener to see him play. For, from the time there was talk that the youngster might miss out here in Galle, the only question on everyone’s lips back home in Australia seems to have been “Surely, they can’t leave Sammy out”.

But here he was happier to compare alleged levels of fame with me, before the conversation almost organically slipped into more important topics such as hair care tips from me, his latest haircut and how his mane had been as long as mine till only a few years ago.

To put it simply, he couldn’t have been more at peace with the world. Despite the circumstances. To say he was taking the minor setback in his stride would be an understatement.

Australia's Sam Konstas, right, and Marnus Labuschagne at a practice session at the Galle International Cricket Stadium ahead of the first Test. (Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP)

He wasn’t faking it, either. He wasn’t playing it cool, either. As the selector on tour, Tony Dodemaide, would reveal later, Konstas had responded with equal maturity when he was told about the big selection call involving his place in the side.

“Oh yeah, mate, no stress. I get it,” he said.

It wasn’t surprising at all to learn that, either. The fun chat on the sidelines on the eve of the Test was a great insight into who he is as a character.

Not just a flamboyant kid who wants to live life in the fast lane, but one who’s appreciative of where he is in life, and grateful, too, for how he’s got there. And clearly a team player who’s happy for his teammate.

As was evident in the way he ended up as the first member of the Australian contingent to walk up to the Josh Inglis family and give each of them a congratulatory hug. Again, it was genuine, like with everything about Sam Konstas.

Now to the decision itself. There have been respected voices who’ve spoken against the call to push Travis Head to open and leaving Konstas out. More in terms of the bigger picture for the Australian Test team and their long-term future. In the short term, let’s just say it’s a move that’s already worked.

Travis Head’s assault on the Sri Lankan spinners in the first 90 minutes of the opening day might well have already set this first Test up for the visitors. You could argue Konstas might have done the same, even if he’s barely been exposed to these extreme conditions in his young life before.

Instead, he’s been left to learn on the job. Spend every moment of this tour to soak up the challenge of Test cricket in Sri Lanka. And so far he’s certainly lapped it up.

It’s been fascinating watching Konstas in the nets over the few days he’s spent in Galle. There’s been nothing funky. Nothing too audacious. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing to reference the Konstasmania that has taken over Australia.

He’s instead had multiple stints in each session, working on his footwork, working on using the crease, working on adjusting to the unpredictable pace of the surface, and largely keeping it simple. He has occasionally tried to launch himself at the spinners to play forceful shots. But again, all of it with as straight a bat as possible.

Australia's Sam Konstas – sans lid – at batting practice at the Galle International Cricket Stadium (Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP)

If anything, the most outrageous thing he’s done so far on tour is probably batting without his lid on during each one of his later hits in the nets. Apart from that, he’s just been the energetic kid that everyone else has enjoyed having in their mix.

All part of the rapid learning curve that he’s been on ever since he burst on to the stage only a few weeks ago. Whether it’s learning about playing in front of 90,000 people or facing the best bowler in the world and taking him down, or even being shoulder-charged by the most influential cricketer in the world.

And in Galle, still within his first month of being a Test cricketer, he’s learnt what it is to be dropped. And like with everything else so far, he took it in his stride, and how.