Australian Great Steve Waugh Finds Shades of His Own Journey in Sam Konstas Challenges

The Ashes squad for the first Test in Perth has been announced, and surprisingly, Sam Konstas has been left out of it. The young batter made headlines when he faced India in the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Many people were impressed by his unique attacking style that took down the Indian bowling lineup comfortably. Due to that, he had a stellar series, and people assumed that the young batter would now become a permanent player of the Australian test side.

However, the recent form of Sam Konstas has worried national selectors. He performed quite poorly in the West Indies tour, and the recent Shield games were not satisfactory as well. Keeping that in view, the young batter has now been left out of the Ashes squad. This is definitely tough news for Konstas, but he can only blame himself for facing such a decision.

Reacting to the news, the Australian great Steve Waugh has come out in support of the young Konstas. He sympathized with Sam by drawing parallels to his own career, saying that he also faced a similar type of uncertainty at the start of his career.

"I feel a little bit sorry for Sam Konstas. He's been in and out of the side a bit, and it actually reminds me a bit of myself when I first started playing for Australia. Not fully confident of being in the side, and up and down, and form not quite there. So he's probably lacking a bit of confidence.” said Steve Waugh after the announcement of the Ashes squad.

He advised the young star to believe in his skills and not listen to random voices. The Australian great also suggested him to go back to the basics, as it will help him to correct his technique, which faced tough questions during the last few months.

"[My advice to Konstas would be] not to listen to everybody. Just trust one or two people around you. Go back to basics. At the end of the day, it's really hard to learn how to play Test cricket while you're playing Test cricket, and that's what happened to me for a few years. I wasn't really that finished product. I'd go back to Shield cricket, try and build some long innings, bat for as long as you can, and just get to know your game really well. And then [when] you walk out to play for Australia, you're confident in what you're doing.” said Steve Waugh.

The Australian chair of selectors, George Bailey, also expressed sympathy to Sam Konstas over his omission from the Ashes squad. He said that Sam is currently in a learning phase, just like other young batters across the country. He is therefore confident that Sam will utilize this opportunity to enhance his game, because his performances have come under tough scrutiny lately.

"I feel for Sammy [Konstas] because at the moment, if he farts, it's a headline. There's a handful of young guys his age playing Shield cricket around the country, and they are all learning and are all going through the journey of becoming the best cricketer they can be, and Sammy is no different - he just happens to doing it under immense scrutiny." said George Bailey.

He advised the batter to focus more on his game and try to score big runs for New South Wales to get some confidence. As per Bailey, this is not the end of the road for Sam Konstas, so he can always come back to the squad by showcasing improvement in his batting.

"We really like him… he's been in and around the Boxing Day Test, he's been on subcontinent tours, [and] he's been on Aussie A tours. So we like the skillset, and [are] confident over the long run, it will continue to build out. It's not going to be linear - no one's passage through their career is linear - [but] the message is just to keep it simple: score runs and bat for as long as he can for New South Wales." said George Bailey.

The first Ashes test will commence on November 21 in Perth. It would be interesting to see how Australia will pick the Playing XI for this match, as Pat Cummins has already been ruled out of the contest due to recovering from an injury.