Cricket Australia has confirmed that Sam Konstas will make his test debut on Boxing Day while Travis Head will undergo a fitness test on his injured quad but coach Andrew McDonald is confident on player to be fit.
Konstas will become the fourth-youngest Australian to make his test debut at 19 years and 85 days on Boxing Day against India, with only lan Criag, current captain Pat Cummins, and Tom Garrett making their debuts at a younger age.
McDonald confirmed in a press conference post training on Tuesday that Australia’s selector on duty Tony Dodemaide had told Konstas the news on the same morning, but also confirmed that playing 11 would come on Christmas Day when Cummins does his pre-match conference.
“We said from the get go, when leading into the summer, that we wouldn’t shy away, and age was no barrier,” McDonald said.
And what he’s shown is an array of shots, the ability to put pressure back on to opponents and he gets his opportunity. We’re really excited for him.”
He is in!
Sam Konstas is set to make his Test debut on Boxing Day while a star batter remains an uncertainty #AUSvIND
MORE: https://t.co/ImefAIvmLd pic.twitter.com/olf48W6yYJ
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 24, 2024
Meanwhile the concerns on Head’s fitness are real as he is clearly not 100%. Head suffered a minor quad strain during second innings of Australia before rain ended the match.
“Has he got some things to work through? Yeah, he has,” McDonald said. “So that’s what you would have seen. There’s no concern at the moment. Has he been officially ticked off? I’m not sure.”
“I didn’t see the sort of back-end of his training session there, but I’m pretty confident he’ll play.
“I think he looked good with the bat in hand so obviously skills are in good order. Yeah, it’ll just be basically what risk is associated with that. He had a small strain to the quad.
“But no concerns from my end. He’s been able to be running, yeah, so I think he’ll be fully functional come the game time.”
Head had a discussion with McDonald and Australia’s Physio Nick Jones Shortly after his hit in the nets.
“It was more around his fielding position and what he was capable of there,” McDonald said. “Clearly coming off a strain he’s got that, obviously the demands of bat pad.
“So that’s all that was about. And my question to Nick Jones was just around what he’s got to do to finish off the session, so I was across it beforehand, or just making sure nothing had changed during the session, and then we just started to speak about India, what they might do. So it was nothing really that specific.”
McDonald also confirmed Australia would make atleast two changes with Konstas replacing nathan McSweeney and Scott Boland replacing injured Josh Hazlewood.
“If we didn’t pick Scotty here, and I’m not allowed to declare the team, because that’s Pat’s job tomorrow, but I don’t think I’m coming to the ground Boxing Day if Scotty is not the XI. So you can go with that as well,” McDonald said.
He had one of his longest bowling spells of the summer in the nets on Tuesday and looked to be moving well having over come his back issues.
“Just to clear up, Mitch Marsh is fully fit and available to bowl,” McDonald said.
“I know that he only bowled two overs last game, and people were speculating around that, but that was more because of the weather interventions, and we’re able to keep our fast bowlers fresh, albeit we only had two out of the three operating.”
“But he’s ready to go, and I think he’ll play a role in this Test match with the ball more so than the previous ones.”
The third match of the BGT ended in draw after the rain spoiled the game on day 05 and both sides have one victory each. The fourth match of the Australia-India tests will be played beginning on December 26 at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
