Melbourne: At the Melbourne Cricket Ground, on Boxing Day and in front of thousands in the stands. A fixture can’t get bigger than this and a Test debut in this setting is the stuff dreams, and some nightmares, are made of. Sam Constas, though, was living the dream.
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As Jasprit Bumrah ran in with the shining red cherry, the 19-year-old curled his upper lip and was ready to get his journey underway as Australia’s Test cricketer No. 468. It was baptism by fire as the experienced quick used the away angle to perfection and stuck to that channel outside off-stump. Ball-after-ball, he tested the right-hander in that corridor before audacity and fearlessness of the youth took over.
Eleventh ball of his innings, Konstas attempted the reverse scoop of Bumrah and there were wry smiles on the faces of most Indian fielders. Well, hang on. You can’t do that to Bumrah. Can you? He has been breathing fire in the series and in comes Konstas looking to put the No.1 ranked Test bowler off his mark. Full marks, and even more, for the bravado but was it required? As per Konstas, it certainly was and he went for it again, but again didn’t make connection.
“He has to stop now, no way he can go on with this approach,” wondered many in the press box but the teenager had it all figured in his head and was third time lucky when the regular scoop got him his first boundary in international cricket.
First runs off Bumrah, first boundary off Bumrah. Not a bad start, eh? Well it got even better next ball when the reverse-scoop finally paid off and went all the way for a maximum. This was the first six Bumrah conceded since 2021 and the first in over 740 overs. Konstas will now enjoy the bragging rights for ending that long wait.
The youngster was unfazed when he was asked about facing Bumrah two days before the Test and here he was, walking the talk and taking the best in the business head on. After a spicy first couple of overs, it was Konstas all the way for the rest of the morning and the Indians by now had started to lose a bit of patience. There were some theatrics by Mohammed Siraj during his spell but it was Virat Kohli’s bump which echoed the mood in the Indian camp, after just ten overs.
Kohli gave the debutant a stiff bump at the end of the 10th over and there were more than a few words exchanged between the two. Usman Khawaja and the umpires had to intervene to restore peace but it seemed like a job well done by Konstas. His daredevilry not only rattled the Indian camp but also got under the skin of Kohli who switched the sledging mode on after a very long time. The crowd wasn’t complaining as the gloves were finally off for the iconic fixture, and Konstas was not going down without throwing his punches.
He looked the Indian veteran in the eye and continued with his approach. There was a lot of adventure but it was paying off. Runs were coming at a brisk pace and the clarity in thoughts was evident in the way he went about doing business at the ‘G.
Off the first delivery of the 14th over, the right-hander brought up his maiden half-century and continued living the dream. Raised his bat, pointed towards the badge on the shirt and did a nice little bat wave to acknowledge the support in his debut outing in Australia whites.
Shortly after the half-century, he was undone by Ravindra Jadeja who trapped him in front with the delivery which came in with the arm. As he made the long walk back to the change room, the MCG was on its feet applauding the 65-ball 60 which gave Australia the early advantage and negated something which had bothered them right through the series. Jasprit Bumrah with the new ball.
How India missed the trick in the first session is probably a discussion for some other day as Thursday was about an unfazed young man living his childhood dream in front of a capacity crowd, and not getting overawed by the occasion, the opponents and even the sledger-in-chief.
