No reason why Konstas won’t be able to handle a Test call-up: Starc

Things have been happening really fast for 19-year-old Sam Konstas. A year ago, Konstas hadn’t made his first-class debut but he is now in the Australia ‘A’ team and is gunning for a spot in the starting XI for the Tests against India.

The teenager, who played in the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa earlier this year, bolted into calculations for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by smashing twin centuries in the first round of the Sheffield Shield earlier this month against a pretty good South Australia attack. By doing so, Konstas became the youngest twin centurion in the Sheffield Shield this entire century.

Due to his relative inexperience, Konstas is still unlikely to be picked for the India series unless he absolutely smashes the door down, but Mitchell Starc believes that the teenager is more than capable of handling himself should he get that call-up.

"There's no reason [for Konstas] not to [handle it]," Starc said, reported ESPNCricinfo.

"He's obviously got the talent, got the work ethic, he's a lovely young man. Time will tell. If he's not picked this summer then I am sure runs on the board will help him in the long run."

Who opens in the BGT will not affect Starc, but what is certain to affect the left-armer and his colleagues is the injury to Cameron Green, who has been ruled out of the five-Test series due to a back injury. Starc admitted that Green’s injury completely changes the dynamic for the Australia quicks.

"It will always change the dynamic when you take a genuine all-rounder like a Cameron Green, or with England when you take a Ben Stokes, out," Starc admitted. 

"When you have that genuine allrounder who has been part of a group for a while ... you get into a bit of a routine of having that extra bowling option.

"I don't know what the dynamic of that line-up is going to be, there is a lot of talk around that opening spot and Mitch [Marsh] bowling as well.

"It's not completely foreign. We've had series in the past where we haven't had an all-rounder at all.

"We've had to take some of that workload, and Gaz [Nathan Lyon] has probably had to bowl a bit extra as well."

It’s a long summer ahead for the Aussies, and that’s particularly likely to affect the quicker bowlers, whose workloads will have to be carefully managed. 

Starc, for instance, is only going to play one Sheffield Shield match - later this week against New South Wales - before the start of the five-Test series. Josh Hazlewood’s workload will also be managed, as will the workload of skipper Pat Cummins.

Will the ‘big three’ seamers play all five Tests? Nobody knows that, but Starc admitted that five-Test summers can be ‘grueling’.

"That's been the mindset for a number of years now, with overseas tour or a home series and the mentality of how gruelling a summer or series can be," Starc said. "It's been spoken about, if you have four or five Tests that go four days, the extra day between games [can be important].

"There is obviously a big gap between the first and second Test and the third and fourth Test. That may play a part as well.

"We don't know what wickets we'll get, we don't know how successful or unsuccessful we will be."

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