Konstas may have failed with those first two scoops, but he tried again soon after and hit Bumrah – the world’s top-ranked bowler – for a six and two fours on the way to 60 from 65 balls. Those shots marked one of the most remarkable starts to a Test career in recent memory – cult hero status gained in a matter of minutes by a batter long tipped for the top. Because, while Konstas’ emergence at the highest level was explosive, the journey to get there has been long. He was the Sydney suburb kid of Greek heritage who was scoring hundreds before his age had reached double figures. In October he became the youngest player since the great Ricky Ponting to score centuries in each innings of a match in the Sheffield Shield, Australia’s first-class competition. Two years before that, and just a month after his 17th birthday, Konstas became the youngest batter to score a century for Sutherland in the top tier of Sydney’s notoriously tough grade cricket. The previous holder of that record? A certain Steve Smith. I remember not being too surprised it was him that did it, says Sutherland captain Tom Doyle. The talent has always been there, those scoop shots too. We had a T20 game and he had come off a hundred in the U21s game in the morning, says Doyle, remembering another innings by Konstas while still aged 17. I remember him getting sledged by the opposition and he proceeded to ramp like he did for Australia against some pretty intimidating first-grade bowlers.
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