Konstas will on Wednesday resume the battle to keep his spot at the top of the order when NSW face a Victorian attack led by Scott Boland in the Sheffield Shield.<\/p>\n
The opening role has been an issue for selectors since Warner’s retirement in January 2024, with five separate men partnering Usman Khawaja in the 15 Tests.<\/p>\n
Marnus Labuschagne has emerged as the front-runner to take on the role this summer, after three centuries in four games for Queensland across all formats.<\/p>\n
But while Warner does believe Labuschagne should be back in Australia’s team, the 112-Test veteran feels the Queenslander’s best position is at No.3 for the summer.<\/p>\n
That would require Cameron Green returning into the middle order, while also leaving selectors with a decision to make at the top for the first Test against England in Perth starting November 21.<\/p>\n
“I’d like them to try and probably stick with Sam and give him a crack,” Warner said at the Fox Cricket launch on Monday.<\/p>\n
“He scored that hundred in the Australian A series (in India last month). He batted outstanding there.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think we’ve seen exactly what we know Sam Konstas can do.<\/p>\n
“Last year coming out, he probably got overwhelmed by the occasion and we saw some very highlighted cricket.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
If anyone can speak to the battle Konstas is facing, it’s Warner.<\/p>\n
He himself became an overnight sensation for Australia in T20s with his debut in 2009, before making his Test debut almost three years later.<\/p>\n
Konstas captured headlines last year with a flurry of scoop shots aimed at unsettling Jasprit Bumrah, on his way to 60.<\/p>\n
But the 20-year-old but has struggled to find balance in his four Tests since, with no score over 25.<\/p>\n
“Last year I felt like he just got caught up in the occasions,” Warner said of his Sydney Thunder teammate.<\/p>\n
“He got caught up in thinking that it was the only way to play that way against Jasprit Bumrah and then did it to the other players.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think he needed to change his game to the other bowlers.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Warner believes the 39-year-old Khawaja will play a key part in that for Konstas, as calm head at the other end in what may be his last summer.<\/p>\n
“Uzi used to do that to me all the time,” Warner said.<\/p>\n
“You learn that with batting with someone, that’s a partnership.<\/p>\n
“That’s where I think you need to keep that stability there. And if he does stay there, they’ll work very well together.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Konstas will on Wednesday resume the battle to keep his spot at the top of the order when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-209212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}