David Warner has asked Australia’s selectors to keep faith with Sam Konstas when the Ashes begin in Perth, arguing the young right-hander remains the best option to partner Usman Khawaja at the top of the order.
Australia have tried five opening combinations in fifteen Tests since Warner retired early last year, and no-one has yet nailed the job. Konstas, the incumbent, managed only 50 runs in six innings against West Indies last summer and began the new Sheffield Shield campaign with 4 and 14 on a lively WACA pitch Nathan Lyon called “naughty”. Even so, Warner believes continuity is now more important than another reshuffle.
“I’d like them to try and probably stick with Sam and give him a crack,” Warner said at Kayo Sports’ Summer of Cricket launch in Sydney. “He scored that hundred in the Australian A series [in India last month]. He batted outstanding there.”
Warner, who watched much of that A tour on television, feels the 24-year-old has been judged on a narrow sample. “I don’t think we’ve seen exactly what we know Sam Konstas can do. Last year… he probably got overwhelmed by the occasion and we saw some very highlighted cricket. But I’ve seen him build innings, I’ve seen him play some fantastic innings and I’d like to see him go back to just doing that.”
The immediate selection debate will pick up again this week when New South Wales meet Victoria in Melbourne. Konstas is set to face Scott Boland and Fergus O’Neill at Junction Oval, a useful Ashes dress rehearsal against two bowlers who pride themselves on English-style seam. Marnus Labuschagne, meanwhile, will continue his own push after a Shield 160 for Queensland, sandwiched between two one-day hundreds, that reopened discussion about moving him up to open.
Warner appreciates Labuschagne’s form – “no-one is questioning how well Marnus is batting” is the line often heard around state dressing-rooms – yet he still thinks the No.3 spot is the better long-term fit for the Queenslander. That remains the default plan inside the national set-up, but selectors have hinted nothing is off the table if the Shield numbers insist otherwise.
Konstas’ Test debut, at the MCG two summers ago, came with a very specific brief: unsettle Jasprit Bumrah after the Indian quick had terrorised Australia’s top order. He responded with a run-a-ball 60, plus two brisk cameos in Sydney, only to be omitted on the turning pitches of Galle and then thrown back in on green Caribbean surfaces. Warner reckons those early extremes muddied the player’s sense of rhythm.
“They don’t have a Jasprit Bumrah so he doesn’t have to worry about that,” Warner said when asked about facing England. “They’ve got some fast bowlers but he can tackle that.
“Last year, I felt like he just got caught up in the occasions. He got caught up in thinking it was the only way to play that way against Bumrah and then did it to the other players.
“I don’t think he needed to change his game to the other bowlers. He could have just stayed there and played the normal way. There was one guy that was getting a lot of people out and… [Konstas] just didn’t want to get out to him because he was bringing the ball back in.
“He countered that and he could have went back in and just batted normally. So I think if he can work out that and identify those periods, I think he’ll go a long way.”
New South Wales coach Greg Shipperd has asked for similar patience, pointing out that the Shield opener at the WACA started on a fresh strip with two days of cloud cover. “Context matters,” Shipperd said after the match, noting that only two batters passed fifty all game.
From a selector’s angle, the choice is becoming a trade-off between short-term certainty and long-term development. Matt Renshaw, Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris all have Test experience and recent runs, yet none has pushed clear this month. Konstas, for all the inconsistency, offers a higher ceiling and is ten years younger than Khawaja’s other would-be partners.
Chairman of selectors George Bailey has indicated the first Ashes squad will be named after the third Shield round, giving Konstas two more first-class games to settle the argument. A solid score against Victoria would not seal the spot, but another failure could tilt the conversation back towards familiarity.
For now, Warner’s words echo around the corridors at Cricket Australia headquarters – a reminder that opening against the new ball is as much about temperament as technique. If Konstas can show even glimpses of the composure Warner remembers, Perth might well be his second chance rather than someone else’s first.
