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Australia will change their opening pair for the Sri Lanka Test tour, promoting Travis Head to partner Usman Khawaja. Steve Smith hinted Sam Konstas might miss out but benefit from practice.
Travis Head will replace Sam Konstas at the top of the order in the Sri Lanka tour. (Image: Sportzpics, X)
Australia has decided to change their opening pair for their upcoming two-match Test tour of Sri Lanka. The defending World Test Champions will promote vice-captain, Travis Head up the order to partner the experienced Usman Khawaja, ahead of the first Test in Galle.
In Australia’s previous assignment, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, the side had opted to give Nathan McSweeney his Test debut where he opened the batting. But with his lack of returns, they decided to replace him with Sam Konstas who impressed on debut.
But the change to promote Head could see Konstas missing out on his first Test appearance in subcontinental conditions, reverting back to a format used in their previous tours, and possibly being flexible in their batting order to the conditions and match situations.
“He (Head) did really nicely in India against the new ball. He put spinners under pressure immediately and we know how well he hits the seam as well if they come with that,” said Steve Smith a day ahead of the match. “It’s going to be good fun watching him,” stand-in skipper, Steve Smith was quoted as saying in a report by Cricbuzz.
Smith, who did not give too much away regarding their 11 for the series-opener, hinted that should Konstas not feature, he can still make use of the time in the nets to help get used to the conditions as well. Smith reflected on his own career, where he missed out a few games in 2013 but was able to learn a lot during his net sessions.
“He’s going to have a lot of practice over here if he doesn’t play, which, in itself, is great as well for development. You know, I only have to think back to 2013 I think, where I didn’t play the first few tests, and just the amount of balls I was hitting in the nets, and the skills I was able to develop from facing loads of net bowlers and things like that. So whether he plays or not, I think it’s going to be a wonderful experience for him. He’s going to learn a lot,” he shared.
As for their playing 11, Smith mentioned that the final decision could be taken on matchday, prior to the toss after making their assessment of the conditions on offer.
“We’ll wait and see what we get, probably the morning of the game, and then go from there. But things can change pretty quickly, in this part of the world, the sun hasn’t been out a great deal. So we’ll have another look at the wicket, and then from there, we’ll name a team at the toss,” he concluded.
