If going after the much-feared Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah got here naturally to Sam Konstas, it had one thing to do with an innocuous mistake his father dedicated in the course of the teenager’s childhood coaching. Making a Check debut that will probably be talked about for a very long time, Konstas lived as much as the hype round his expertise by smashing a powerful 60 off 65 balls when the Boxing Day Check acquired underway right here on Thursday. Greater than the runs he scored, it was Konstas’ audacity to tackle the world class Bumrah with the brand new ball that had the specialists singing his eulogy.
Konstas’ brother Billy, who’s a physiotherapist by career, revealed how his father’s error finally helped his youthful brother study tackling tempo bowling from an early age.
“We have been little children and the primary time dad took us to a bowling machine, he had it on 90 miles an hour, considering it was 90 kilometres,” Billy advised Fox Cricket.
“Dad fed the machine, and he hit it straight out of the center. I feel from the age of 5 – 6 years previous, this has all the time been his dream. It is a dream come true for all of the household and really feel very blessed and thank God for being right here.” His extremely aggressive method set the tone and pumped up Australia, who ended the day one of many Boxing Day Check at a cushty 311 for six.
Billy additionally revealed that Konstas, who performed for St George and Sutherland and graduated to first-class cricket solely final 12 months, was assured of getting rating on debut.
“I am a physiotherapist by commerce and he stated ‘Billy, can I get a therapeutic massage?’ and I requested him what number of runs are you gonna rating tomorrow?”. He advised me ‘don’t fret, I’ll rating a couple of’. I sorted the younger man and he appeared very relaxed,” stated Billy.
Whereas Konstas appeared snug underneath his pores and skin, his household was a bundle of nerves. “It has been an unbelievable expertise. Everybody was nervous strolling into the bottom, coronary heart was pounding a bit.”
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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