Australia’s young lad Sam Konstas aspires to face Jasprit Bumrah after his heroics in the pink-ball warm-up match against India. Bumrah was right on the money in the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar series against Australia at the Optus Stadium, Perth, returning with 8-72 in the match.
The gun fast bowler bagged 5-30 in the first innings and then registered figures of 3-42 in the second essay. Thus, the stand-in captain was awarded Player of the Match and he is now in numero uno position in the ICC Test rankings.
On the other hand, Sam Konstas scored a fine knock of 107 runs off 97 balls while opening the innings for Prime Ministers XI against India and thus bagged the Player of the Match.
Meanwhile, Australia has named their squad for the second Test match against India but Konstas could not find a place despite scoring a fine hundred. Nathan McSweeney, who returned with scores of 10 and 0 in the opening Test, has been backed by the Australian selectors.
“I was watching quite a bit. Bumrah is a skilful player, obviously, and probably the best in the world. Hopefully, one day I can face him and see how we go. I feel confident [in my game]. I’ve been training really hard and it’s a great opportunity to play against the best players,” Konstas said after the warm-up match against India (via WA Today).
Konstas revealed that he has been practicing the unorthodox reverse ramp shot along with former Australian skipper Tim Paine.
“I’ve been practicing it a little bit with Tim Paine, but yeah, good to get a few away. Tim just told us to have good intent and put pressure on them and treat it like a 46-over game. So I was just trying to keep things simple and just trying to stick to my plans,” Konstas added in the same interaction.
The second Test match between Australia and India, which will be a pink-ball game, will be played at Adelaide Oval from December 6 onwards.