"He flustered India, no doubt about that" - Ravi Shastri makes big admission about Australian youngster's impact in BGT 2024-25

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has admitted that young Australian opening batter Sam Konstas flustered India with his debut knock in the Boxing Day Test of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Melbourne. Shastri, however, advised the 19-year-old to focus a lot more on scoring runs.

Konstas stunned India with 60 off 65 balls during his famous Test debut at the MCG. However, during the match he was also involved in a heated exchange with Virat Kohli after the Indian star shoulder-barged him. In the next Test, he tried to get under the skin of Jasprit Bumrah, which led to another verbal altercation.

Speaking on the ICC Review show, Shastri admitted that Konstas was successful in upsetting India's plans with his aggressive knock on debut in Melbourne. At the same time, he advised the youngster against over-exuberance.

“I think it was more the exuberance of youth. He was like a cat on a hot tin roof. He wanted to announce himself straight away. There was a lot of talk. He's someone who'll take the attack to the opposition. And he wanted to walk the talk. And he did that," Shastri commented.

“He flustered India, there's no doubt about that, in Melbourne. But my advice to him would be ‘you've got talent, the focus should be on scoring runs more than anything else’. You focus on your strengths. You play the way you want," the 62-year-old went on to add.

While Konstas slammed a game-defining half-century in the first innings in Melbourne, he ended BGT 2024-25 with scores of 8, 23 and 22.

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"I think the tour of Sri Lanka in many ways will help" - Shastri on Konstas

Having thumped India 3-1 to seal their place in their World Test Championship (WTC) final, the Aussies will now take on Sri Lanka in a two-match away Test series. Shastri believes that the tour of the island nation will help the youngster mature. He stated:

“I think the tour of Sri Lanka in many ways will help. Getting out of Australia, playing overseas, and then getting to learn a lot of other things and maturing.”

On the other hand, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting opined that Konstas cannot survive at the Test level by batting in the manner that he did at the MCG against India. He urged the 19-year-old to learn from his experience on the big stage and figure out a way to succeed in international cricket in the long run. Ponting said on the ICC Review show:

“I don't think he can survive as a Test opening batsman playing like that all the time. So he will learn a lot from the first couple of games that he played as a batsman, but just as an international sportsman as well, I think he'll learn a lot.

"It's a big stage and he really enjoyed it at the MCG. But I've seen this happen a lot with young players. They come in, they get overawed by everything a little bit, and it takes them a few games or a few series just to actually work out who they are and who they need to be successful international players,” the Aussie legend concluded.

Konstas replaced Nathan McSweeney in Australia's Test squad for BGT 2024-25 after the latter managed only 72 runs from the first three Tests. Both Konstas and McSweeney have been included in the squad for the two-Test series in Sri Lanka.