Follow UsFormer Australian opener David Warner has backed fellow Sydney Thunder’s opener Sam Konstas as Australia’s opening partner alongside Usman Khawaja for the upcoming Ashes. Since Warner’s retirement, Australia have had a lot of trouble up top, trying out umpteen number of openers before handing out Konstas his Baggy Green.
While Konstas was impressive in his first series against India, his returns started dwindling, with the selectors instead picking Marnus Labuschagne as the opener for the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 final. Labuschagne’s failure meant that Konstas earned his recall in the subsequent series against West Indies.
With Ashes now around the corner, the debate has reemerged, after Labuschagne smashed a stroke-filled 160 for Queensland while Konstas knocked off 4 and 14 in two digs against Western Australia.
"I'd like them to try and probably stick with Sam and give him a crack," Warner said, reported ESPNCricinfo. "He scored that hundred in the Australian A series [in India last month]. He batted outstanding there.
"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."
Warner also backed Konstas to continue his ‘attacking approach’, stating that if he can work that out and identify periods in Test cricket for that, he would be the perfect choice.
"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."
Is there a place for both Labuschagne and Konstas?
"I think when you've got a lot of Test cricket under your belt, you know what he's capable of and know what he can do," he said.
"If someone's averaging 50 in Test cricket, you've probably got to go back to that. Does he open? I wouldn't like to see him open. I'd like him to shuffle back down to three."