AUS vs IND, 4th Test: Can Sam Konstas end Australia’s musical chair for opening spot?

AUS vs IND, 4th Test: Can Sam Konstas end Australia’s musical chair for opening spot?

In the lead-up to the Boxing Day Test against India in Melbourne, Australia has pinned its hopes on the 19-year-old Sam Konstas to solve the side’s opening batter crisis.

His addition comes after the team management’s previous roll of the dice of slotting in Nathan McSweeney yielded paltry returns in the first three games of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. In the six innings they partnered at the top, McSweeney and Usman Khawaja added just 99 runs with the highest being 31.

With an average of 42 in 18 innings in First-Class cricket, which includes two hundreds, Konstas looks to hold the pedigree that could put an end to Australia’s musical chair at the top. He gave a glimpse of his potential with a century during India’s warm-up match against the Prime Minister’s XI earlier this month.

Konstas and Khawaja will be the third opening combination for Australia since David Warner called time on his Test career in January. In the 17 innings Australia has batted this year, its opening wicket average is 24.57, the lowest since 1996. Among the nine teams in this World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, Australia’s average in 2024 for the first wicket ranks fifth. India, England, South Africa, and Sri Lanka fare better than Australia.

It also marks a sharp decline from the average of 39 runs that Warner and Khawaja produced in the 41 innings they started.

In the Brisbane Test, Steve Smith had lauded his side’s opening salvo for blunting out the new ball, thereby paving the way for him and Travis Head to score centuries later in the innings. “A lot of credit has to go to the top three. They faced 50-odd balls each, which is a pretty good effort on that wicket out there,” said Smith after the second day’s play in Brisbane.

Australia’s openers have fared well in spending time at the crease. In 2024, the side averaged 53 deliveries on average before conceding the first wicket. Only India and West Indies have a better dismissal rate at 55.3 and 55.0, respectively. South Africa follows closely behind at 52.2.

However, the additional time in the middle has not translated into runs, leaving the onus on the middle order to steer the side out of trouble. India averages nearly 38 for the opening wicket despite facing almost the same number of deliveries. England has a worse dismissal rate of 39.0 but a superior average nearing 33.

Further, Australia has only two fifty-plus partnerships for the opening wicket in 2024. Only Pakistan has a worse record in this period. 2024 is only the third year this century when Australia has failed to register a century stand for the first wicket.

Khawaja’s dwindling yields with the bat have contributed to the top-order’s caving in too. Khawaja was a significant contributor in the last two years, amassing over 1000 runs in 2022 and 2023. He averaged 67 and 52 in these two years, respectively. In 2024, his average dropped to 24. Khawaja notched up nine scores of 50 or more in both these years; this year, he has one.

Though this crisis stares Australia in the face now, it had been simmering for quite some time now. The root of the problem has been Australia not trusting a pairing for long enough.

Since the start of the WTC in 2019, Australia has only two pairs who have opened the innings in 20 innings or more – Khawaja and Warner (41), and Marcus Harris and Warner (14). In comparison, its two major opponents, India and England, have had four pairs each.

The problems were compounded further when the highly-touted Will Pucovski, earmarked to take up the opening mantle at some point, failed to live up to the expectations amid struggles with mental health. He eventually cut his career short at just 26 years old due to repeated concussion injuries.

Domestic journeymen Marcus Harris and Joe Burns could not emulate their Sheffield Shield returns with the national team and were soon shown the door.

Now, finally, Konstas’ early forays in domestic cricket have seen him emerge as a promising candidate to end Australia’s search. In October this year, he became the youngest to score two hundreds in a Sheffield Shield match since Ricky Ponting in 1993.

Come Boxing Day, Konstas will be the 12th batter to open for Australia in a Test match since 2019. In a list that includes Steve Smith and Travis Head, Australian selectors will hope Konstas’ entry yields the best dividends.