Australia announced the squad for the fourth and fifth Test matches against India earlier today. Among the notable inclusions was 19-year-old Sam Konstas who is set to make his debut in the Boxing Day Test at the iconic MCG. He will replace Nathan McSweeney who made his debut in Perth and has seemingly struggled in all three Tests played so far with the best score of 39 runs.
Australia's struggles up at the top were indeed visible with the highest opening partnership of the series being only 31 runs. McSweeney, particularly, struggled facing Jasprit Bumrah who dismissed him four times in six innings. Interestingly though a day before the squad announcement, skipper Pat Cummins had backed McSweeney. Then why was he dropped at the expense of Konstas?
If the chief selector George Bailey is to be believed, the hosts want to throw something different at India and Konstas offers them the same. The youngster scored twin centuries in the opening round of the Sheffield Shield this season for New South Wales. He followed that with a brilliant century in the pink-ball warm-up game against India while playing for Prime Minster's XI. He strengthened his case with a quickfire fifty for Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League (BBL).
"You can say the way our top three are playing has been reasonably similar and we'd like the ability to throw something different at India off the back of that. If you look more broadly, I don't necessarily think the top six has quite functioned to the level that we need in this series as a whole.
"Think Sam's method, his style, is different to Nathan's, different again to Beau's and Josh's as the other batting options within that team and we think they provide the options of a different look and a different make-up for the XI come Boxing Day," Bailey said. Meanwhile, Bailey also revealed that McSweeney is disappointed with his exclusion but he has been communicated the reason for the change made in the squad.
"Nathan was disappointed and really the message to him was, much the same as at the start of the series, that we believe, and that hasn't changed, that he has the ability and temperament to succeed at Test level but just given the way the series has played out, we want the option of throwing something different at India for this next Test," the Aussie selector added.
