Australia in Sri Lanka: Legendary captain Ricky Ponting calls on selectors to pick Sam Konstas for Test

Legendary Australian captain Ricky Ponting has urged selectors to let teenage sensation Sam Konstas take his brash batting show on the road to Sri Lanka.

Konstas took the cricket world by storm with a rampage of trick shots — including reverse ramps and scoops — with the eyes of the nation locked on his Boxing Day Test debut.

And Ponting, who was hardly older than Konstas when he toured with Australian teams for the first time, said he would stick with the New South Welshman at the top of the order with Usman Khawaja.

That means resisting the temptation to thrust left-hander Travis Head to the top of the order for the first of two Tests in Galle from Wednesday, despite Head’s strong showing in the role against India in 2023.

Any move for Head back to the top of the order would trigger a reshuffle of the middle order. Uncapped West Australians Josh Inglis and Cooper Connolly could be involved in a shake-up, while Nathan McSweeney — axed after just three Tests in the home summer — is also in the squad.

But Ponting wants to see more of Konstas.

“I think they’ll pick Konstas, I think they should pick Konstas actually,” the Australian champion said before he leads Channel 7’s coverage on the first day of the series.

“He is obviously the one they have identified, he hit the ground running here — certainly in his first innings — as well.

“He brought a lot of entertainment and a bit of buzz about that whole Test series. I think they need to play him, to be honest, I think it’s a hard place to play and a hard place to win.

“It’s going to be a hard place to bat for all our guys, but especially some of those younger guys that hadn’t experienced those conditions much in the past.”

Konstas’ whirlwind debut came as part of a ploy to take down Indian destroyer Jasprit Bumrah and ease wrestle out of the stranglehold he had on the Australian top order.

The 19-year-old scored 60 off 65 balls on the very first day of his Test career at the MCG and was front and back-page news nationwide for the two weeks after it.

With their spot in this cycle’s World Test Championship final locked away, Australia has a rare opportunity to begin introducing young players to the world of international cricket.

This is the first overseas Test tour for one-Test all-rounder Beau Webster, McSweeney, Connolly and Konstas.

Ponting’s first tour with the national team came as a reserve batter, to the West Indies in 1995. He said Konstas, as the incumbent Test opener, was in for a different experience.

“I think it would be a great learning experience for him, I think getting out of Australia and getting away from some of that hype and buzz that surrounded him for the summer will probably do him some good as well and he gets to learn a bit about what travelling life of an international cricketer is all about and how hard it can be to play in different parts of the world,” Ponting, who averaged almost 50 playing in Sri Lanka, said.

“Sam seems to be a bit of a different character to what I was coming into the Australian team, he has got a bit more about him, he has been on the front foot a bit more than what I was.

“In my first tour, to the West Indies in 1995, I knew I wasn’t going to be playing, I was one of the spare batsmen. When you’re coming into a tour like that, it is very much, sit back and wait your turn and don’t expect too much from training, don’t expect too much from the guys.

“But it’s probably a little bit different from Sam now he’s the incumbent Test match opener and he should be going away there to get as much as advice and ask as many questions as he can of the more senior players.”

Ponting said opening the batting was a success late on Australia’s most recent tour of India and for Head and that it suits the left-hander’s style, but he said the opportunity to have another look at Konstas was too good to pass.

“There’s a great opportunity for them to give him (Konstas) the experience that he needs in these conditions,” he said.

“I think the order will stay the same.”

Meanwhile, Cricket Australia staff have cleared left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann to head to Sri Lanka at the weekend.

It comes less than two weeks after he dislocated his right thumb while fielding a ball off his own bowling for Brisbane Heat.

Kuhnemann’s bowling has not been hampered by the injury, but he was put through a fitness Test in Brisbane on Thursday to confirm he was fit to bat and field.

Australia are desperate for a bowler to spin the ball away from Sri Lanka’s right-handers — with left-arm finger spinners prodigious in sub-continent conditions — and Kuhnemann is their only frontline option.

“He should just about be right by then and I think he is critical for that team. If he is 95 per cent right, I would be playing him as well,” Ponting said.

“He has done well when he has played, he bowled well in India didn’t he. These left-arm off-spinners, certainly against right-hand batters, as we’ve seen over there in the past (Rangana) Herath caused our guys all sorts of issues in the past and Kuhnemann can do the same I think.”