A Debate has been raised within Cricket Australia over the inclusion of 19-year-old Sam Konstas for the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
With Chris Rogers provided a warning, paceman Josh Hazlewood backs the young player for his readiness, citing the past success of young players transitioning to international cricket.
Despite Konstas’ impressive performance in the Sheffield Shield, where he hit centuries against South Australia, Chris Rogers feels that he still needs to wait for his Test debut.
He urges a cautious approach as he suggests facing India should have more resilience and a more stable player. “I know there’s a lot of talk about Konstas,” Rogers told.
“I would just ask the question is he going to help win us this series, and if he’s not, if we don’t think he’s going to make that much of a difference, I would just leave it for this summer just because going and facing India could set you back a little bit.
“And there’s no rush, he’s only 19, there’s going to be a big future for him. Maybe a softer landing.”
“I know some people won’t agree with that, but I think to go up against India, you’ve got to be resilient, you’ve got to have things in order when it goes wrong, because they’re going to challenge you hard.
“I’d be looking for someone a little bit more established at the moment, and then in the future say we can look at something different.”
Meanwhile, Hazlewood believes Konstas is ready to adapt quickly and succeed in international cricket with reference to his net practice.
“I don’t think anyone’s too young,” Hazlewood said. “A lot of the guys around here have played international cricket at quite a young age in different formats.
“I think for Test cricket if you need to throw him in there, people play at a young age from time to time, not all the time, I’m sure he’ll work it out if he gets thrown in there.”
Rogers put down Harris’ dual leg side dismissals by Mitchell Starc as unfortunate and valued a day one contribution that took vital shine off the new ball to enable Victoria to scrap their way to a match-winning first innings tally.
“He’s moving as well as I’ve seen him,” Rogers said. “If you look at this game, he got caught down the leg side twice off Mitchell Starc. That can happen. Just from what I’ve seen he’s batted really well in round one, got a hundred. I think he’s batting really well.”
India is currently involved in a three-match test series at home against New Zealand.
Despite trailing the series 1-0, India holds the top position of the WTC points table with Australia being the second. The first test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy starts on November 22 at Perth Stadium.
