Twenty-nine reasons to expect a different Sam Konstas as he nears a Test recall
London: As Australia's players and staff took a moment to spend time with their families on the Lord's outfield following the end of the World Test Championship final, Sam Konstas spent most of his time hanging out with their kids.
It was a moment that underlined how at 19, Konstas is a generation gap behind the rest of an ageing team, the oldest member of which - Usman Khawaja - is twice his age.
But it is by another number - 29 - that Konstas may be entitled to remind the world how assiduously he has worked since the end of the Australian season, to return to the kind of batting that got him into contention to play for the national team in the first place.
After his high-profile flame out at the SCG against Scott Boland in a February Sheffield Shield match, and before his departure with the Australian Test squad for London and the Caribbean, Konstas had no fewer than 29 net sessions with his batting coach Tahmid Islam in Sydney.
At each and every one of those sessions, Konstas avoided the ramp or scoop shots that he used to such outlandish effect against Jasprit Bumrah on Boxing Day at the MCG, when Australia chose him as a 'circuit-breaker' against India.
That modus operandi is an important part of Konstas' story. Against Bumrah, Australia had looked all at sea over the first three Tests of the series, and after the retirement of David Warner lacked a player willing to take the attack to him.
Perth debutant Nathan McSweeney has struggled under that spotlight, but so too had the established Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne. Konstas had no such baggage, and surprised even those closest to him with the gusto with which he went after Bumrah on the biggest stage.
Those shots, and the ones he attempted in the next three innings in Melbourne and Sydney, brought a range of critiques from Australia and abroad. Some of them were of the unkind variety that seems unavoidable in the era of the engagement-friendly hot take.
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