{"id":229049,"date":"2025-10-21T03:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T03:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/229049\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T03:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T03:54:07","slug":"steve-smith-says-hes-happy-to-give-sam-konstas-batting-advice-ahead-of-the-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/229049\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Smith says he’s happy to give Sam Konstas batting advice ahead of the Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Smith has offered to mentor embattled teammate Sam Konstas as the young opener fights for runs and his place in Australia’s Ashes plans.<\/p>\n

Despite flashes of talent, Konstas’s domestic form \u2014 marked by erratic shot choices and a lack of consistent runs \u2014 has intensified debate over Australia’s opening options before the Test series against England starts in Perth on November 21.<\/p>\n

The New South Wales batter was bowled for 20 as he attempted to ramp Victoria paceman Cameron McClure in a one-day match on Monday, reviving concerns about his shot selection.<\/p>\n

Since his 109 in the first innings of Australia A’s match against India A in Lucknow last month, Konstas has averaged 26.25 in nine innings across all competitions, with only one score of more than 50.<\/p>\n

Smith, one of Australia’s finest batters in history, said Konstas had time to work out his game but he would be glad to help if the five-Test opener came to him for advice.<\/p>\n

“My door’s always open, my phone’s always on,” Smith told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“Whenever he wants to chat batting, I love talking batting and I’m happy to help wherever I can.”<\/p>\n

While offering support, Smith stressed that young players must ultimately forge their own path as he had following a shaky start to his own career.<\/p>\n

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“Yeah, I assume he’s talking to different people. He’s got his batting coach that he works with, lots of experienced players that can share wisdom as well,” Smith said.<\/p>\n

Despite Konstas’s recent struggles, Smith praised his natural ability against pace bowling.<\/p>\n

“From what I’ve seen he’s got so much time as a batter when he’s facing fast bowling \u2014 that’s something you can’t really teach,” Smith said.<\/p>\n

“That’s a good starting point. There are a few things he has to work on, but he’s a bright talent as we’ve seen and he’s got a bright future.”<\/p>\n

Reuters\/ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Smith has offered to mentor embattled teammate Sam Konstas as the young opener fights for runs and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8786,13285,64,63,81065,740,18134,1208,2733,116222,17069,588,85,35235,25773],"class_list":["post-229049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-advice","tag-ashes","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-batting","tag-cricket","tag-dismissal","tag-england","tag-nsw","tag-one-day-cup","tag-sam-konstas","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-steve-smith","tag-struggles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229049","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=229049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}