Gloucestershire have signed Australia’s Cameron Green for five County Championship matches, in a deal made possible by a “significant donation” from one of the club’s members.
ESPNcricinfo reported this month that Green is hoping to make his return from a back stress fracture before the end of the Sheffield Shield season, and that he was lining up a stint in county cricket. Gloucestershire announced on Friday that he will play five games for them between April 18 and May 26 in the second division of the Championship.
Green’s stint will enable him to play competitively ahead of June’s World Test Championship final, which sees Australia face South Africa at Lord’s. He will only be available as a specialist batter, rather than an allrounder, and faces competition for places in the middle order after the recent success of Josh Inglis and Beau Webster early in their Test careers.
Gloucestershire’s finances have been perilous in recent years, with the club posting a £1.19 million loss in their most recent accounts. But chair Peter Matthews said one of the club’s 2,000 or so members had donated a sum of money which will enable them to cover the cost of Green’s wages without exceeding their playing budget for the 2025 season.
“We are delighted to welcome Cameron to Gloucestershire,” Matthews said. “This deal would not have been possible without a significant donation from a member of the club, and we are incredibly grateful for his generosity, which has enabled us to do this deal without going over the playing budget.”
Mark Alleyne, Gloucestershire’s coach, said: “Cameron Green’s ability is unquestionable… He usually operates in a key position for the best Test team in the world at the moment and having that pedigree in our camp is amazing for the players alongside him. We have serious ambitions in all formats in 2025 and Cameron’s signing will reinforce this sentiment.”
Elsewhere, Hampshire have confirmed the signing of another Australian allrounder in New South Wales’ Jack Edwards. ESPNcricinfo reported this week that Edwards will effectively replace Mohammad Abbas for the first two months of the Championship season, with Hampshire’s hoping Edwards’ ability to bat No. 7 will help them fill the void left by James Vince quitting red-ball cricket.
It’s a day out from the game, and yet getting to Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium when Australia or England are en route can be impossible. Presidential-style security chaperones the sides between the hotel and the newly-rebuilt ground. The ticketing website and resale venue were overwhelmed as soon as tickets for this contest were released, and then once more when further tickets were made available.
A car arrived at the gate, a full mile away from the stadium entrance itself. A policeman had a long squint at the windshield, and shook his head. “Wrong type of sticker,” he said firmly. “You can’t enter here, let alone park here.” In Pakistan, this game is a big deal, bigger than arguably for any other side this tournament.
It can be hard to escape the impression that Australia are on the opposite end of that spectrum. Injuries and withdrawals leave them without the entirety of their preferred fast bowling line-up, while Marcus Stoinis announced his ODI retirement in the lead-up to this tournament and Mitchell Marsh is also injured.
When you’re the reigning world champions in the format, the motivation to demonstrate you must also be considered champions of the mini-World Cup, as this competition was once informally billed, has to be lukewarm at best. But Steven Smith insists his side do not see it that way.
“I think it’s irrelevant, really,” Smith said on Friday. “This is another event. You’ve got to be focused from that first game. In our last World Cup, we were a bit slow to get started. We were really under the pump. And then we brought our best cricket towards the back end of the tournament, which is what you need in World Cups.
“Champions Trophies are a lot different. You can’t be slow to get started. You’ve got to get right into your work from the outset. That’s our message to the group and the guys are excited about getting started tomorrow night against England out here.”
For Smith, leading this side in Pat Cummins’ absence, is well aware he couldn’t have taken that privilege for granted. Once destined to be a long-term Australian captain before it was all washed away by the events of Cape Town 2018, Smith knows better than almost anyone how one moment, or one tournament, cannot define a player.
Back as Australian captain in an incredible redemptive arc, victory here may just be another bit of silverware for a heaving Australian trophy cabinet, but leading his side to it would be a prized career highlight for the man himself.
“I’m pretty relaxed,” Smith said. “There’s always pressure when you’re playing in international events and big tournaments. It’s clear we’re obviously missing a few of our gun fast bowlers, but we’re not worried about that. We’re thinking about what we’ve got here and the opportunity that those guys have.
“There’s some quality players in that room that are playing in almost their first big event, I suppose, which they’re looking forward to and I’m looking forward to as well. It’s going to be great to see them placed under pressure against some quality opposition, and it’s going to be an exciting time for us.”
England may not be the terrifying opposition they were in this format between 2015 and 2019, the side that blitzed Australia to what remains their only World Cup semi-final defeat. However, it does offer an indication of what each side expects from the squad they bring to this tournament that England announced their starting XI – specific batting positions and all – nearly two full days out from the game, while Australia want as much information as possible.
“We’re pretty clear where we’re sort of heading,” Smith said, somewhat unconvincingly. “But we’ll name it [the side] at the toss tomorrow. I need to have a look at the surface when we get an opportunity as well. We’re pretty clear where we want to go, but we’ll name it tomorrow.”
Smith was hit in the box in the nets on Friday, but has been cleared to face England after some initial discomfort. He missed a training session earlier in the week through illness, and said that he had not yet looked at the surface when he spoke to media.
“England are a great side,” Smith said. “They’ve been a very good white-ball team for a long period of time and we’re looking forward to starting our campaign against them tomorrow. Hopefully it’s a belter of a game.”
England, after all, have recognised pace pedigree that Australia cannot match in the absence of Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Brydon Carse will all play on Saturday, while Australia must work out how to fit three of Nathan Ellis, Ben Dwarshuis, Spencer Johnson and Sean Abbott into an attack led by the legspin of Adam Zampa.
But, as every side in this tournament knows well, there is only so much debate to be had about the finer technical points of strength and weakness about an Australian side in these circumstances. Like Real Madrid in football’s Champions League, all that sometimes matters is that running through the DNA of this particular unit is an ancient, received wisdom passed down generations, one that illuminates the path to glory in ICC event after ICC event.
No wonder, then, that Smith, whom destiny appears to have thrust into the role of main Australian character against England once more, is quite so relaxed.
Danyal Rasool is ESPNcricinfo’s Pakistan correspondent. @Danny61000
South Africa 315 for 6 (Rickelton 103, Bavuma 58, Markram 52*, van der Dussen 52, Nabi 2-51) beat Afghanistan 208 (Rahmat 90, Rabada 3-36, Mulder 2-36, Ngidi 2-56) by 107 runs
Ryan Rickelton is showing the value of runs under the belt. He came into the Champions Trophy on the back of a solid SA20, where he was the fourth-highest scorer. Before that, he had smoked 259 in the New Year’s Test against Pakistan. On Friday, it was time for him to leave his mark on the 50-over format as he piled on his maiden ODI century in his seventh game as South Africa began their Champions Trophy with a solid 107-run win over Afghanistan.
Batting first on a Karachi surface that had a nice layer of grass, South Africa rode on Rickelton’s 103 followed by steady fifties from Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram to rack up 315 for 6. That meant for Afghanistan to win on Champions Trophy debut, they had to record their highest-ever successful chase.
But they never really got close. Rahmat Shah was the only bright spot as he scored a sprightly 90 off 92 balls, and was the last batter to fall. But with a second-highest score of 18, Afghanistan were never really in it. Kagiso Rabada picked up three wickets, while Lungi Ngidi and Wiaan Mulder got two each as Afghanistan were bundled out for 208 in 43.3 overs.
It was a largely flawless innings from Rickelton from start to finish. He never looked rushed; not when Tony de Zorzi fell early or when Bavuma took his time to get going. Rickelton struck boundaries whenever he got a chance. When he didn’t, he quietly rotated the strike. He started with a lovely punch past mid-off third ball before going back-to-back against Fazalhaq Farooqi in the fifth over, once with a fierce pull through midwicket and then a cut past point.
De Zorzi also struck two fours but fell to a rather nonchalant delivery from Mohammad Nabi. Introduced in the attack in the sixth over, Nabi’s first ball was a drag-down on off stump. De Zorzi could have walloped that anywhere; instead, he flopped it straight to mid-on.
Bavuma walked in at No. 3 and took his time to settle in. His first 19 balls yielded only seven runs before he got a couple of fours away to get into the groove. Rickelton, meanwhile, picked Azmatullah Omarzai for two delightful fours to raise his fifty off just 48 balls.
South Africa ticked along to 83 for 1 after 15 overs, but an important passage of play was about to come: South Africa batters vs Afghanistan’s spinners. That’s where Rickelton really showed his wares. With both him and Rashid Khan part of MI Cape Town in the SA20, he would have faced a lot of Rashid in the nets, and that experience showed.
Between overs 11 and 20, South Africa scored 58 runs without taking much of a risk. Bavuma, too, got to his fifty, only his second away from home, as he continued his rich form. He had a solid 129-run stand for the second wicket with Rickelton, before holing out to deep midwicket as Nabi picked his second wicket.
By that time, Rickelton had moved into his 90s, and had hardly broken a sweat in doing so. Afghanistan hardly helped themselves in the field, too. There were innumerable misfields, and a run-out chance was fluffed, while Noor Ahmad was particularly off-colour. He was either too short, or too full, and often tried to dart the ball in and lost his shape.
Rickelton strolled through his 90s and became the first South Africa batter to register a century on Champions Trophy debut with a push to long-off.
Afghanistan got a lucky break when Rickelton was run-out in bizarre fashion. He bunted a Rashid length ball back to the bowler, who fired a flat throw to the wicketkeeper. Rickelton, out of his crease, was caught off-guard just a touch, and as he put in the dive, his bat bounced just short of the crease. That meant even though his bat was over the line, it was in the air when Rahmanullah Gurbaz whipped the bails off.
But if Afghanistan hoped for any respite, they weren’t getting any. Van der Dussen, coming into the tournament not in great nick, was fluent in his stroke play. At the other end, Markram found his stride as well, with both batters recording fifties. The last five overs yielded South Africa 51 runs as they posted an above-par total.
For Afghanistan to chase down 316, it was imperative for Gurbaz to get going. But South Africa’s new-ball bowlers weren’t ready to give him an inch. Ngidi’s short-of-a-length ball got the better of Gurbaz as he got a top-edge to Keshav Maharaj at short fine leg. Sediqullah Atal, coming in at No. 3, struggled big time. Ibrahim Zadran finally broke the shackles by hammering Rabada over wide long-on. That obviously did not please the bowler, who returned with a 148.3kph thunderbolt and sent Ibrahim’s middle stump splat.
The South Africa pacers concentrated on that hard length. According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, in the first 15 overs, 33 of the balls bowled by South Africa were either short or short-of-a-good length.
Atal’s difficult innings, where he was beaten ten times and played 14 false shots in the 32 balls he faced, ended with a run-out. Soon after, Hashmatullah Shahidi fell thanks to a stunning catch by Bavuma at mid-on as Afghanistan stumbled to 51 for 4 after 15 overs.
Rahmat was the only batter who showed some fight as he cruised to fifty off 62 balls. But with none of the batters hanging around, Afghanistan were always struggling. The Karachi crowd, which had come in numbers to support Afghanistan, found their voice when Rashid smashed three fours and a six in his cameo of 18 off 13 balls. But apart from that, there was little for the crowd to cheer.
Rahmat was the last batter to fall, edging Rabada to Rickelton for 90, as South Africa registered their first ODI win after six attempts.
TossMumbai Indians chose to bowl vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Mumbai Indians captain Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and opted to chase against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the first match of the Bengaluru leg.
Win the toss, opt to field and win the game has been the trend so far this WPL. But with dew expected not to play a big part tonight, RCB will hope to change that.
Both teams are coming off a win in their previous game. RCB beat Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians trounced Gujarat Giants. Therefore, it was no surprise when both teams decided to retain their winning combination.
It’s a well-rolled pitched with short square boundaries: 55 metres and 61 metres. The straight boundary is 70 metres.
Would you believe it, not only have Australia and England been drawn in the same group at a global tournament, but their Champions Trophy returns also start against one another. Universe (ICC), you’ve done it again! And yet, amid such predictable money-grabbing comes a bit of shameful excitement. Even without mentioning the “A” word, these are two bitter rivals in unique states. A champion Australia side shorn of some of those champions, and an England side increasingly desperate to rediscover former glory.
The lack of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood gives the ODI World Cup holders a less intimidating feel, and subsequently shifts the onus on a batting line-up led by Travis Head’s brand of “Ah, we’ll have a go”. Quite how that responsibility will manifest itself to what is more or less an established group of batters remains to be seen particularly as captain Steven Smith, standing in for Cummins and the injured Mitchell Marsh, who would have likely deputised, weighs up the right combinations for his top seven.
That Australia can call upon Nathan Ellis, Sean Abbott, Spencer Johnson and Ben Dwarshius to fill big bowling boots reflects the enviable depth of Australian cricket, even if those bowlers’ most notable successes – Abbott aside – have come exclusively in T20s. Extrapolating that to 50-over cricket will be its own challenge. Australia are not putting much stock in the fact they arrive off the back of a 2-0 ODI series loss against Sri Lanka. The same could be said of England, even if their 3-0 defeat to India elicited far more anger and ridicule.
Not training enough and golfing too much were the main takeaways outside a group that actually seems in good spirits considering they have now lost all four ODI series since the 2023 World Cup. To be expected, of course, as negative vibes have no place in Brendon McCullum’s house.
In keeping, England’s break to the UAE came with a view of shedding the baggage from a travel-and defeat-heavy month in India, with added benefit of escaping the press hysteria around focusing on the wrong kind of white ball. But McCullum’s task requires a more hands-on and technically focused approach with a group which continues to look uneasy with bat and ball in this format.
How much of that McCullum can change in such a short space of time – he has only been in charge of the limited-overs set-up for a month – will be determined over the coming weeks. Right now, it probably helps to have a familiar foe on the horizon to drum up a little extra heart and vigour.
As for Jos Buttler, the next fortnight will go some way to determining whether he sticks with the captaincy. A promise to smile more at the start of the year felt optimistic at the time, and has proved as much. But after missing all of England’s ODIs in 2024, he will be better for the three ticked off earlier at the start of February.
Of those Buttler missed last year due to a calf injury was the five-match series against Australia at the end of the home summer, which ensures greater familiarity at international level between the players, even if many of them have rubbed shoulders as team-mates or opponents at domestic level.
Australia, made up of a few of the alternates substituted into their Champions Trophy squad, triumphed 3-2 on that occasion, having been 2-0 up before taking their foot off the gas. All five results were blowouts of one kind or another. And just as it was for India, Australia’s spinners made hay against England’s batters, with Adam Zampa doing the brunt of the damage, supplemented by handy contributions from Glenn Maxwell, Marnus Labuschagne and Head.
Form guide
(last five completed matches, most recent first)
Australia: LLLLW England: LLLLW
In the spotlight: Spencer Johnson and Harry Brook
Starc is as close to irreplaceable a bowler as you can get in white-ball cricket. But if you’re going to try a bloke who is six-feet-four and also bowls left-arm rockets, it is a handy way to go about it. The best of Spencer Johnson has come in the shortest format, and with only three ODI caps spaced out over more than a year, the burden of replacing Starc at the front and back of an innings will weigh heavy on his broad shoulders. After taking his maiden wickets in Sri Lanka earlier this month, much is required of Johnson in Pakistan.
Speaking of Pakistan, is there a better place for Harry Brook to rediscover his groove? This country’s pitches have been kind to him, albeit in the Test format, where he averages 84.10 courtesy of four hundreds – the most recent being a triple. England’s newly-appointed vice-captain left the India tour in a funk, with a lowly average of 16.66 in the ODIs brought about by an inability to attack spin effectively. But he will take heart from skippering with distinction against Australia last year, which included registering his maiden ODI century against them at Chester-le-Street.
Team news
Given the absences, Australia’s pace attack pretty much picks itself. Allrounder Aaron Hardie, the immediate beneficiary of Marcus Stoinis’ retirement from the 50-over format on the eve of the tournament, could sit out for Labuschagne to play as an extra batter. Dwarshius’ left-arm/left-hand option may see him pip Abbott to the bowling allrounder slot.
Australia (probable): 1 Travis Head, 2 Matthew Short, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Josh Inglis (wk), 5 Marnus Labuschagne, 6 Alex Carey, 7 Glenn Maxwell, 8 Sean Abbott/Ben Dwarshius, 9 Nathan Ellis, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Spencer Johnson
England announced their XI two days out from the match – early by their unusually prompt standards – with Jamie Smith not just back fit from a calf injury, but also batting at No. 3 while also playing as wicketkeeper. It is not quite a nuclear option, but it does involve pushing Joe Root to No. 4 and taking the gloves from Phil Salt, who kept throughout the ODIs in India. With just four frontline bowling options, Root and Liam Livingstone must join forces effectively to provide a serviceable fifth. The pace of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, playing his first 50-over tournament since his Super Over heroics in 2019’s World Cup final, will present Australia’s starkest challenge.
England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Jamie Smith (wk), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jos Buttler, 7 Liam Livingstone, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood
Pitch and conditions
ODI pitches at the Gaddafi Stadium are almost always flat belters. The venue hosted two matches in the recent tri-series, with New Zealand posting 330 for 6 to beat Pakistan, and then chasing down 305 with six wickets and eight balls to spare. Lahore is expected to be slightly cooler than it was for the tri-series, partly because of rain this week, which ended up hampering England’s preparations on Thursday. Dew is very rarely a factor at this time of year.
Australia and England have a tight head-to-head record in the Champions Trophy, with England ahead just by a 3-2 margin.
Maxwell and Buttler are the only members available from the two teams’ squads from the 2013 edition of the tournament.
Archer is two wickets away from 50 in the ODIs.
Jamie Smith has only previously batted at No. 3 once in 18 List A innings – for Surrey against Kent in 2019.
Quotes
“I’m going to have my work cut out for me with some of that fast bowling England have got. They’re high quality, highly skilled and high pace. I’ve got to make sure I start well, earn the right, and see where the game takes us. I’m just worried about making sure I start well for the team.” Australia vice-captain Travis Head on challenge posed by England’s quicks
“He’s been fit and firing now for 18 months or so since being out of the game for a while. He’s really excited to put together that kind of length of time back on the field, and he’s obviously a superstar of the game for us. He is someone, as a captain, you always know you can turn to and throw the ball. He’s obviously going to be really looking forward to the game tomorrow.” Jofra Archer is ready and raring to go, says Jos Buttler
Vithushan Ehantharajah is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo
When the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore was rebuilt over the past few months at breakneck speed, the PCB may have envisioned it opening with cricket’s most ferociously rivalry, but cricket’s oldest rivalry will have to do instead. With Pakistan not guaranteed a game at this venue at all, there was no other game here with greater demand for tickets than England vs Australia, where the winners of the last two ODI World Cups kick off their Champions Trophy campaigns.
This, however, is not going to be a battle of two current white-ball titans. Neither side starts off this tournament a picture of ODI health, and it is how they address – or, more pertinently, conceal – their weaknesses that may be most consequential to the outcome. England have lost 16 of their last 23 ODIs in a run stretching back to the 2023 World Cup, while Australia have come up second best in six of the last eight games. They are further hampered by injuries and high-profile withdrawals: none of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Marsh or Marcus Stoinis are part of Australia’s squad.
After something of a horror ODI series against India, England’s most significant tactical move may be something of a defensive ploy masquerading as aggression. Announcing their starting XI two days out from the game, they revealed wicketkeeper Jamie Smith will bat at No. 3 for the first time in his international career.
“We just feel it’s a nice position to give him a free hit to try and really impact the game, make that that top three really dynamic,” Jos Buttler, England’s captain, said. “Jamie’s someone with incredible talent and taken to international cricket so well that we feel he’s got the game there and can place him in that position to try and have a really big impact with a number of guys behind him.”
It’s the closing bit of that statement, perhaps, that unearths a more rounded reason for what, if England’s recent history is anything to go by, is an on-brand punt. Against India, England’s more established middle order was especially vulnerable to collapses against India’s spinners in the middle overs.
While a calf injury ruled Smith out of that series, his ability against spin in Pakistan was best showcased in the longest format. October’s third Test in Rawalpindi was over on the third morning on an excessively spin-friendly wicket; Pakistan did not bowl a ball of seam and all 20 England wickets fell to the spinners.
But with England on the ropes at 118 for 6, it was Smith who launched a remarkable counter-attack, hitting five fours and six sixes in a 119-ball 89 to allow England to rack up 267. It included an astonishing takedown of Pakistan’s premier offspinner Sajid Khan, scoring 61 runs at a run a ball against him without giving away his wicket.
“He’s obviously got the game technically and tactically, but I think the head on his shoulders seems to be one of the biggest strengths,” Buttler said. “Nothing seems to faze him too much: I think you could ask him to bat anywhere in the line-up and it wouldn’t faze him. We feel it gives him a nice position to try and really impact the game, make some big runs, and put some pressure on the opposition.”
It means Joe Root, Harry Brook and Buttler himself slot down the order, spreading England’s quality through the middle overs and – theoretically at least – inoculating against the sort of collapses that characterised their white-ball tour of India. The cynical view would term this a rearranging of the deckchairs in the absence of more wholesale changes, but on these wickets against the arguably less challenging task of negotiating Australia’s spinners, Buttler had reason for guarded optimism.
“I think the conditions will be different here [to what] they were in India,” he said. “Everywhere you go around the world has its own nuances and different conditions. We’ve got lots of guys who’ve played in Pakistan before, guys who’ve played in the PSL, so [they’ll be] sharing those experiences. And then every day in a game of cricket, you’ve got to turn up and assess conditions and play accordingly and work on that.”
And unlike the febrile partisanship that can take hold of these occasions when these two sides play each other home or away, this time around, they’ll find themselves greeted by a crowd who doubted they’d see this fixture played here, and are simply glad that it is. At least, for those lucky few who managed to secure tickets.
Shardul Thakur’s fighting half-century wasn’t enough for another Mumbai rearguard as the defending champions lost the Ranji Trophy semi-final to Vidarbha, last year’s finalists, in an absorbing contest that went into the final session of the final day in Nagpur.
Leading Vidarbha’s run to the final – they’ve won two of three Ranji finals previously – against Kerala was left-arm spin-bowling allrounder Harsh Dubey, who picked up his seventh five-wicket haul of the season to take his wickets tally to 66. He’s now just two short of Bihar left-arm spinner Ashutosh Aman’s record for most wickets in a Ranji season.
Victory on the final day seemed a mere formality when Mumbai lost Shivam Dube and Suryakumar Yadav early, as they quickly slipped to 124 for 6. Dube played outside the line of a sharp in-ducker and was bowled by Yash Thakur, while Suryakumar saw one from Dubey jump on to him to lob a catch to the slips.
But from the depths of a crisis, Shardul rose to the occasion like he has a number of times this season. Typically aggressive, and batting with a sense of freedom and purpose, he quickly whittled down the runs during the course of a century stand with Shams Mulani.
At one point, halfway into the second session, Vidarbha’s left-arm spinners even switched to a defensive line by bowling outside leg to Shardul to try and frustrate him into either slogging or stepping out against spread-out fields. Vidarbha missed a run-out opportunity to dismiss Shardul on 48 when Akshay Wadkar, their captain and wicketkeeper, failed to collect a throw cleanly from fine leg.
Vidarbha appeared to wobble briefly, but it was at that point that Mumbai gifted them a wicket in the form of the set Mulani when Shardul attempted to steal a single to square leg. Mulani, who hesitated briefly, was well short of the crease despite the dive as Danish Malewar’s one-handed pick-up and throw with one stump to aim at hit the bulls eye to break a 103-run stand.
Shardul then began to open up and look at boundary attempts, sensing the possibility of being stranded, but was out to a superb delivery from Yash. He was caught on the hop to a short-of-a-length delivery that cut back in to breach his defence and hit the stumps.
Mumbai’s last-wicket pair of Mohit Awasthi and Royston Dias had some fun in putting together a quickfire 52-run stand to bring the requirement down to less than three figures, before an audacious reverse sweep from Awasthi had him lbw as Dubey celebrated his fifth to seal victory.
Former Test opener Chris Rogers has questioned if Sam Konstas really wants to be an all-out aggressor, as data shows how much the teen’s game has changed since December.
Konstas put himself back in the headlines this week, when bowled trying to slog-sweep Scott Boland in the third over of a Sheffield Shield match against Victoria at the SCG.
The seven-ball cameo included a reverse-scoop for four off Boland’s second ball and another boundary charging down the wicket, before he was out for 10. It prompted immediate questions over Konstas’ long-term viability at the top, and whether he will regain his spot for the World Test Championship final against South Africa.
Konstas responded by waiting 30 balls to play an attacking shot in NSW’s second innings, before being caught for 17 as the Blues went on to victory.
“Being an opening batter you probably want to be as consistent as possible with your approach,” Rogers, who played 25 Tests for Australia and is now Victoria’s coach, said. “I like the fact at times he decides to put pressure back on the bowlers and try and change the game.
“But for him it’s probably working out the calculated risks he wants to take. He’s only played 15 first-class games, the more he plays he’s going to understand what his style is and be able to deal with the pressures of first class cricket.”
Those close to Konstas insist he has not changed since his eye-catching Boxing Day Test debut, where he reverse-scooped Jasprit Bumrah and hit a quickfire 60. But what has become evident is the way the 19-year-old’s cricket has changed in recent months.
When Konstas became the youngest player to hit twin tons in a Shield match in October, he played no scoops and left or defended almost half the balls he faced.
His approach has clearly changed since, with the turning point seemingly coming when he hit 107 from 97 balls against India in a shortened non first-class two-day match for the Prime Minister’s XI.
Before that game, Konstas had a strike-rate of 50.72 in first-class cricket, hitting a boundary once every 17 balls and averaging 39.37. From that innings on, Konstas’ strike-rate has sat at 72 in red and pink-ball cricket, with a boundary every 11 balls while averaging 36. Konstas’ percentage of runs from boundaries has also gone from 24 to 39.
“It’s interesting because I know a couple of the boys who have been around him said he doesn’t particularly want to play like that,” Rogers said. “I wonder if it’s just he gets into the contest and his heart rate goes up and he makes these decisions a little bit on the fly. I really don’t know. He’s got such a big future. He’s so talented. Even when he was playing in the second innings he looked assured.”
Boland, who finished with 10 wickets in the match, admitted he was also surprised Konstas attacked him so early in Sydney.
“We thought with the wicket having a bit of nip if you put enough balls in the right area we had a good chance of getting his wicket when he plays like that,” Boland said. “It’s up to him how he wants to bat. We saw before Christmas the way he batted against South Australia and others when he got some big scores.
“He’s got both methods and can play really aggressive, but when he wants to play the traditional method in four-day cricket, he has the game to do it.”
