Triggered: How one key change has turned Sam Konstas’ batting around in Ashes fight

5 hours ago 1

It’s one small step for Sam Konstas. It could be one giant leap for Australia.

The addition of a pre-ball “trigger” movement to Konstas’ batting technique can be revealed as the key change the 19-year-old has made since a bruising tour of the Caribbean and ahead of the fight to retain his Test spot for the Ashes.

A rapid-fire century for Australia A in India overnight was Konstas’ second in as many hits, after also reaching three figures in a practice game for New South Wales in pre-season.

Both innings show that by starting to work on moving before the ball is bowled, Konstas will be sharper against quality bowling and more likely to avoid the types of dismissals he suffered in the West Indies.

“Yeah, I’ve got a small trigger movement now. Just to be more proactive and move my feet in better positions,” Konstas told this masthead before his departure for India.

“Every player is different in the way they go about it, technique wise or trigger wise, but just trying to find what trigger suits the player. For me, it’s just about trying to be a bit sharper when the ball’s going to come. I’m just trying to keep it as simple as possible and watch the ball.

Sam Konstas endured a tough tour against the West Indies.

“It’s good to learn from the best players like Steve Smith, he’s done it all around the world, his record speaks for itself, Usman Khawaja, Marnus [Labuschagne], so for me at 19 to experience that, I’m really lucky. Hopefully we can build on those experiences and be a better player.”

The pre-ball movement is commonly employed by top players to be as sharp as possible as the ball leaves the hand. They can vary from the smaller movements favoured by the likes of Khawaja to Smith’s famously exaggerated step across the crease.

Konstas’ small shimmy is the fruit of plenty of indoor sessions at home in Sydney with his personal batting coach Tahmid Islam, allied to the feedback he received from senior Australian players and coaches on tour.

Konstas cobbled a mere 50 runs in six innings at an average of 8.33 in the Caribbean. It was the slimmest aggregate for an Australian opener in more than 40 years across a series of three Tests or more.

Australian head coach Andrew McDonald alluded to “new movement patterns” in discussing Konstas’ century in Lucknow on Wednesday.

“Any time that you get space and time to work on your game and then to be able to execute that straight away with a century in an intra-squad [match] … and then an Australia A contest in foreign conditions [gets you] that immediate feedback [that] what you’ve been working on can work,” McDonald told SEN.

“To come from the West Indies, to go away, work on your game [and have] that winter investment, get [an] immediate return, I think gives a lot of confidence. A lot of our game is about confidence and believing in what you’re doing. Now it’s the ability to sustain that.

“Oppositions will look at it, critique it, they’ll work out ways to potentially pick holes in some potential new movement patterns that are there. There’s debate around whether exposing young batters too early potentially can damage across a journey. I think match experience gives you great learning space and the ability to go from game to game against quality opponents.”

Konstas made his century for Australia A in the company of young Victorian opener Campbell Kellaway, who made his own mark with a fluent 88 in conditions that aided seam bowlers early on before flattening out.

“Very happy. It’s good spending time in the middle,” Konstas said after his hundred. “I had to face quite a few demons mentally, just trying to get through that. Just different challenges and trying to adapt to the conditions. Super stoked and hopefully I can build on from that.

“Early on it had a bit of nip and just trying to get through that, and then spin wise it didn’t spin as much, so just backing my instincts and trying to repeat each ball with my process.”

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