‘There’s a lot of talent there’- Ricky Ponting believes in Sam Konstas to come good on debut at Boxing Day Test (Source: ICC/Twitter/X and Gareth Copley-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
The playing XI for Australia for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne has been announced, and the encounter will mark the international debut for 19-year-old batter Sam Konstas as well. The young batter was named as the replacement for Nathan McSweeney who was dropped from the squad for the remainder of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
Sam Konstas made a great impression in the warm-up game before the second Test at Adelaide, where he scored an incredible 107 runs from just 97 deliveries while playing for the Prime Minister’s XI. He has a great first-class record, which was enough for the Australian selectors to pick him for the last two Test matches. The experts have a lot of great things to say about Konstas and the man who has given his views on the young teenager is three-time World Champion Ricky Ponting.
“I’ve seen a lot, there’s a lot of talent there, no doubt about it, The way he played in the PM’s XI game, the way that he was able to approach his first BBL game the other night… I know it’s different formats, but you can see that the talent is there and there’s also a bit of an attitude to go with it and not a bad attitude, (but) an attitude that he knows that he’s good, and he wants to show the world that he’s good,” Ponting said while speaking on The ICC Review.
“There’s still a challenge there. It’s a Test match. It’s your first Test match. You’re playing against some of the best bowlers in the world. It probably doesn’t get any bigger in world cricket right now. It’s like any other country debuting an opening batsman against our bowling attack, when you’ve got (Mitchell) Starc, (Pat) Cummins, and (Josh) Hazlewood there,” Ponting added.
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Speaking of the match, the Boxing Day Test starts from December 26 and the Australians will be up against a formidable Indian attack at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). While the Aussies have already announced their playing combination, India are likely to drop Shubman Gill, while Rohit Sharma is going to be back to his usual opening slot, while ace batter KL Rahul will move to batting at no. 3, according to reports from Times of India.