On Sam Konstas

What to make of Australia's new Greek God of Ramping?

Avoiding politics when you're talking to that uncle over the festive season is usually sage advice.

But this year, it’s not interest rates, the housing crisis or Pat Cummins’ view on the utility of solar panels that’s dividing households.

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The question dominating airwaves, barbecues and beaches as Australia basks in the glow of summer and a Test series win over India is a sporting one.

Everyone has a take on Sam Konstas, the 19-year-old opening bat, the nation’s new resident rampologist, the guy who committed the cardinal sin of wearing green Adidas Sambas to Kirribilli House.

If Albo is offended by a pair of Adidas Sambas, he’s going to get a helluva shock over the coming months. While the PM will be judged by the public at the polls - come what may come May - who and how we should judge our athletes is more opaque.

Let’s start with the Konstas rap sheet.

First off, there’s the Boxing Day ramping of Bumrah - unsuccessful twice, successful thrice.

There’s the Fox Cricket interview at the first drinks break - an opportunity more seasoned batters routinely refuse - where Mark Howard asked Konstas whether he dreamt up the ramp shots the night before, the morning of, or as the ball was coming down.

“When the ball was coming down. I’ll look to keep targeting him. Hopefully he might come back on, but we’ll see what happens.”

Konstas’ tongue was firmly in his cheek, at least for the start of the grab. The ramp is a premeditated shot, after all.

Out for 60 before lunch, Konstas decided to sign some autographs and take some selfies.

On Channel 7, Ricky Ponting aired a story about meeting Konstas before a BBL game. The youngster found out Ponting will soon head to the IPL.

“You’ll have to get me in the auction next year then, won’t you!” he said.

For the rest of the Melbourne Test, Konstas took to inviting the slow clap from the crowd, stretching in front of Bay 13, and chirping away.

So on to Sydney and those Adidas kicks at Kirribilli on the eve of the final Test.

On the first day of that match, Konstas was engulfed by another furore, and by half the Indian team, after engaging from the non-striker’s end with Jasprit Bumrah, only for his partner, Usman Khawaja, to nick the final ball.

In the run chase on day three, he lost his wicket to a cavalier shot after slapping Australia to 0-39 within the first four overs in pursuit of 162.

That left his stats for the series thus: 113 runs at 28.25, strike rate 81.88, scores of 60 from 65 balls, 8 from 18 balls, 23 from 38 balls and 22 from 17 balls.

It’s too simplistic to say the Konstas discourse cuts down generational lines, but the old guard of Australian cricket has certainly raised an eyebrow, if not more, at all of this hullabaloo.

On Fox, former Test skipper Allan Border pointed out that “there’s a subtle difference between confidence and cockiness and and I think he’s just tipped over to the cocky side”.

On SEN, former Victorian wicketkeeper Darren Berry took exception to the Sambas, to Konstas’ dismissal in the second innings in Sydney, and to the youngster rubbing his hands on the ground at short leg with the bowler already on his way in.

There are more voices, more views, but underpinning most is is the idea that you earn your stripes in Australian cricket. Head down, bum up. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Don’t get too big for your boots.

And if you do puff that chest out, show a bit of bravado and offer up a bit of chat, you better be able to back it up.

Take as a microcosm of this idea the response in the crowd on Boxing Day, firstly, to Konstas’ initial attempts to ramp.

Raised eyebrows. Big exhales. The odd guffaw.

Kids these days.

Consider next the response when he nailed the shot on the third attempt.

Exhilaration. Delirium. A Betoota Advocate article with the headline “Greeks Invented Ramp Shot, Claims Papou”.

All good! If it comes off…

Lost in the obsessive focus on individual numbers and whether the method is sustainable at Test level is the place of this new part within the whole.

The stated ambition of Konstas’ selection was to do away with the sitting ducks approach to batting against Bumrah, to “throw a new challenge at India”.

And so the role was clear - be a very specific horse for a very difficult course, Australia’s opening gambit to counteract the game’s most lethal bowler.

The Boxing Day knock changed the course of the summer and the series, despite the fact that Konstas’ 60 was a long way from the leading individual contribution in that Australian first innings, let alone in the the Test match.

As Konstas played his hand, the Indians sat on theirs. When they finally came too, they were irked, angry, distracted. Kohli embarrassed himself with his shoulder charge and Bumrah became mortal, at least for a moment.

Down the other end, Usman Khawaja looked as if batting with the freewheeling youth reminded him of his own. He put forward his best two scores of the series opening with a player half his age.

It’s true that his 57 came on a Melbourne pitch that was flat compared to others in this series, and his 41 in the decisive run chase in Sydney was scored sans Bumrah.

Nonetheless, the old pros of this Australian team have been through most of the attrition cricket can throw up, from Stokes at Headingley to days in the dirt in Dubai and Rawalpindi.

For Konstas, cricket’s trials and tribulations lie ahead, not behind. He is unjaded, effervescent. To his teammates, that makes him a peculiarity.

Take Nathan Lyon’s response when he was interviewed by the ABC after play on day two in Melbourne.

His face was amused but nonplussed as he talked about Konstas, as if he was describing the sight of a friend’s baby reaching out to touch the moon.

Konstas, he recalled, compared the Boxing Day Test to a grade game, then couldn’t find the MCG viewing box.

On The Grade Cricketer podcast, they’ve taken to discussing the development of Konstas’ prefrontal cortex, or more specifically, how much development remains.

That rhymes quite nicely with Lyon’s reflection on Konstas’ naivety and the idea that he probably doesn’t really understand the enormity of Boxing Day or the Baggy Green just yet.

His opening partner, Khawaja, threw two more bobs in once the series wrapped up in Sydney.

"He's got this sense of being arrogant but saying it with a smile on his face and you just can't take it seriously. You've got to get to know him."

And then, of course, there was his captain, Pat Cummins.

"We say the same to all of our players, just bring yourself every day and be yourself. Go about how you think represents yourself the best and how you want to play.”

"I think he's been really good this series. He [Konstas] stood up for himself as he needed to."

That might he the most definitive judgement of all, for Konstas, more than any other fresh selection in recent times, has immediately lived the ethos of the Cummins’ era.

Be yourself. Play your role. Help us win.

Whether he continues to do that should be the prism through which his next steps in Test cricket are judged. If the first couple of weeks are anything to go by, it’s going to be a lot of fun.