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The Australia A tour of India will mark the start of Konstas’ season before a defining month of Sheffield Shield cricket for New South Wales

AAP09-Sep-20250:27

Konstas gone for duck as tough Caribbean tour ends

Sam Konstas doesn’t care for regrets or critics. And by putting himself on a self-imposed social media ban, the teenager hunting an opening spot in a home Ashes series has ensured he will hear as little of the latter as possible.The 19-year-old is set to play two four-day matches in India for Australia A before targeting four Sheffield Shield games for New South Wales with a goal of finding the red-ball form that eluded him on a tough tour of the West Indies.Whatever happens in the next two months, you can be sure the charismatic young gun won’t be giving two hoots over what outsiders say about his approach.Related

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Konstas dazzled the cricket world on Boxing Day last year against India on Test debut with a flamboyant and audacious 60 off 65 balls. Critics said he would not be able to play that way on a regular basis and succeed.Runs have since proven elusive and Konstas did not pass 25 in his next nine Test innings.  He is competing with a plethora of candidates to partner Usman Khawaja for the opening Ashes Test in Perth but has no regrets about his approach on debut against Jasprit Bumrah and company.”I wouldn’t change it,” Konstas told AAP. “I don’t have any regrets in my life to be honest. I thought that was the right method at the time and it paid off. I don’t get too fixated about what others say. Whatever I feel is right I totally commit to.”My method is someone who is an aggressive batsman that likes to take on the game, while understanding the game situation when I do play well. It is about trying to score runs and win games.”The more experiences I have in different conditions the more I will adapt. I have to find my method and what works best in each situation.”What also works best for Konstas is not having social media. He went from a relative unknown to a global attraction overnight with 281,000 followers on Instagram. Watching the ball and not his phone screen is now the focus.”I never had social media until I was 18. I had it for a year and now I have taken a break from it to be more present and try and get back in the Ashes squad,” Konstas said. “It is just about focusing on myself and trying to give it a good crack.”Everyone uses social media differently but I feel now is the right time to get off it. I don’t read my comments on Instagram. I don’t care what other people say to be honest but everyone has their opinion.”Konstas heads to India with confidence and valuable lessons already under his belt.”I’ve had a few experiences in the subcontinent,” Konstas said prior to taking centre stage at Tuesday’s ASICS kit launch at the SCG. “I was lucky enough to be in the MRF Academy last year and to tour Sri Lanka as well with the Aussie boys. Hopefully I can score plenty of runs and adapt to those conditions.”It is about trying to be in the present moment with any game I play whether it be my club team, NSW or Australia A ahead of the Ashes.”I got so much out of my first time in the Caribbean and facing a quality fast attack. The wickets were tough to bat on.For me it was about trying to find methods for scoring runs in those conditions and understanding the bounce is variable and trying to find another method, if I do go again.”

أثارت تصريحات محمد صلاح ضجة كبيرة، وقد سلطت الأنظار عليه خلال جلسة تدريبية مفتوحة لفريق ليفربول بعد وقت قصير من المقابلة التي أجراها.

وقد طغت أحداث ما بعد مباراة ليدز يونايتد والتي انتهت بالتعادل الإيجابي بثلاث أهداف لكل فريق وتصدر صلاح عناوين الصحف بسبب تصريحاته.

وأثارت تعليقات صلاح حول آرني سلوت مدرب ليفربول ضجة عالمية، ولم يتوقع أحد كل ما قيل منه وتساءل الجميع إذا كان المصري سيشارك في الجلسة التدريبية المفتوحة.

ولاحظ الصحفي “مارك أوجدن” ما كان يفعله محمد صلاح أثناء خروجه لتدريبات ليفربول قبل لقاء إنتر ميلان في دوري أبطال أوروبا.

اقرأ أيضاً.. أليسون بيكر على رادار عملاق أوروبي للرحيل عن ليفربول

وأفادت “rousing the kop” أن الجميع يعلم أن صلاح يستمتع بكونه النجم الأبرز في ليفربول وأن الأنظار مسلطة عليه وهذا ما جعله لاعب عظيم.

ومع ذلك فقد تخلي النجم المصري عن غروره قبل بدء الجلسة التدريبية وشوهد وهو يحاول التصرف بشكل طبيعي قدر الإمكان، وتجاهل الموقف لتخفيف الضغط عن النادي.

وذكر أوجدن في بودكاست لـ “ESPN”: “نعم، بالطبع، طلب منا الحضور لبدء التدريبات، وكان هناك بعض الانتظار مما زاد من ترقبنا ولكن عندما خرج صلاح كان كل شيء طبيعي للغاية”.

واختتم: “خرج مع إيكتيكي ولم يكن هناك أي شعور بأنه يسير في آخر المجموعة، لم يكن دخوله متأخراً بشكل درامي ولم يثر ضجة كبيرة، ذهب مع إيكتيكي وعانقه أيضاً سوبوسلاي عناقاً خفيفاً ثم انضموا للتدريبات وخاضوا مباراة تحضيرية مصغرة”.

The England opener has remained undroppable despite plenty of patchy form, and he showed why at The Oval

Matt Roller01-Aug-2025

Zak Crawley got to his half-century in just 42 balls•AFP via Getty Images

How do you explain a cricketer like Zak Crawley? He is an outlier, a player who continues to defy conventional wisdom. No man in Test history has opened the batting so often (93 innings) and averaged so little (31.06), yet he is one half of England’s most prolific opening partnership for a decade and his place has rarely been so secure.This Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series has been a trademark Crawley series: he has averaged 34.50, a tick over his career mark, and has thrilled and frustrated in equal measure. He has made three substantial contributions in eight innings, yet none of England’s first-choice top seven have scored fewer runs. He remains England’s enigma, his career a web of contradictions.Crawley was England’s top-scorer in their first innings at The Oval and personified their approach, jumping at the chance to dominate India’s seamers. Before his dismissal, Crawley hit one in every four balls that he faced for four, maintaining a strike rate well above 100. He scored 56 of his 64 runs in boundaries, reasoning that on a seaming pitch, attack was the best form of defence.Related

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It was the perfect attack for him to face. Crawley has the peculiar distinction of getting better when the bowling gets faster, reasoning that he is at his best when he has no time to think and lets his instincts take over. Facing seam, he averages 43.31 against balls at 84mph/135kph or quicker, compared to just 27.31 against those below.But that is precisely why England’s management have retained him for so long. He has missed only three of their 47 Tests since Boxing Day 2021 – and those through injury – despite two long ruts in form. That he was their top-scorer in two consecutive marquee series (Australia 2023 and India 2024) vindicated the sense that he is better equipped against the best than the rest.Crawley is encapsulated by the fact he has only been dismissed once in 119 balls in this series against Jasprit Bumrah, but twice in the seven balls he has faced from Nitish Kumar Reddy. India’s rebalancing at The Oval pitted him against three fast-medium bowlers; Crawley may have been the only England batter to breathe a sigh of relief when India left Shardul Thakur out.If he rode his luck at times – inside-edging Prasidh Krishna past leg stump, flashing him over the slips – he made good use of it. Crawley hit two perfect straight drives – one mid-off, the other mid-on – in three balls from Mohammed Siraj, and made a capacity crowd collectively purr when he spanked Prasidh through cover point.1:58

Bangar on Crawley-Duckett: Haven’t seen batting of that quality

His partnership with Ben Duckett was worth 92 in just 12.5 overs, and the collapse that followed vindicated their ultra-positive approach. Crawley and Duckett refused to let India’s seamers settle, disrupting their lengths by charging down the pitch and – in Duckett’s case – playing conventional and reverse-scoops. On a green seamer, it was defence that proved fatal.It was evident from Shubman Gill’s reactions at third slip – and, soon enough, mid-off – that England’s openers put India under severe pressure. After India folded for 224, Gill was caught between stools: he had no runs to play with, yet knew that he needed to break the partnership as soon as possible. Duckett’s fluffed reverse came as a huge relief.By that stage, Duckett and Crawley had reached a rare milestone, bringing up 500 runs for the series as an opening pair. It was the first time any opening pair had done so since 2015, and they were the first England openers to since Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook in the 2010-11 Ashes. No wonder Crawley, for all his flaws, is considered undroppable.Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett have been the perfect contrast as an opening pair•Getty ImagesIt is not hard to work out why they have been such a success together. “One’s right-handed and a giant, the other is left-handed and isn’t,” Ben Stokes wrote in his programme notes for the Edgbaston Test. “When they get going, it can be a nightmare for bowlers trying to find rhythm.” A good ball to one is a freebie to the other, and vice-versa.Crawley is clearly frustrating to play against, and not only for his free-wheeling batting. He thrived on his role as pantomime villain at Lord’s and was on the wind-up again last week in Manchester, telling India’s batters their decision to bat on for centuries was “embarrassing” – seemingly oblivious that he was England’s only specialist batter without one in the series.His spliced pull to square midwicket felt oddly apt: he has always been a player of style over substance, and an anticlimactic dismissal was perfectly in keeping with the Crawley experience. On the flipside, for all that it looked like a missed chance to define the match, Crawley’s 64 was the highest score across both teams’ first innings.The Oval suits Crawley: it is one of two venues (along with the Utilita Bowl) where he has passed 50 three times in Test cricket, and is the English ground where he has scored the fastest. England have averaged fewer runs per wicket at The Oval than any other home venue in the last four summers; it is utterly in keeping with Crawley’s eccentricities that he has thrived there.