McDonald asks for 'a bit of patience' as spotlight remains firmly on Konstas

Ahead of the opening Test against West Indies, Sam Konstas was enjoying what Barbados had to offer: the food, the beaches, the lifestyle. Then things got real.

Two innings of 3 and 5, the latter an especially difficult 38-ball stay, where he twice fell to in-duckers from Shamar Joseph, means the spotlight will remain squarely on him as the series moves to Grenada.

On the one hand, this is very tough on a 19-year-old playing just his third Test. He was confronted with extremely difficult conditions. It was just his 18th first-class match. But Australia have set themselves, and Konstas, on this course amid the trouble they have had trying to replace David Warner.

Konstas' debut knock against India at the MCG - which included four plays and misses in the first over of the match against Jasprit Bumrah before the pyrotechnics began - helped change the mood of the series, but currently it feels more like a millstone than a milestone.

An interesting titbit from an interview Konstas gave to News Corp ahead of the Barbados Test was that he had been advised by his batting coach Tahmid Islam to remove from his phone the highlights of the century he scored against the Indians for the Prime Minister's XI in Canberra, full of scoops and ramps, in what effectively became a one-day game.

Konstas is still trying to work out the type of batter he needs, and wants, to be - that is hardly surprising for someone yet to turn 20 - or at the very least reconnect with the tempo that was evident in the back-to-back Sheffield Shield centuries that initially got everyone talking last season and drew comparisons with Ricky Ponting.

"The players are the harshest critics really when all is said and done," head coach Andrew McDonald told reporters the day after Australia's 159-run victory. "We've had some conversations around potentially if you're in that situation again what does that look like and that's what experience is. It's learning from previous events and trying to implement a way through that.

"It felt like he was stuck at times and he was over-aggressive and then [he] underplayed. It's really that balance and tempo. He's got that there and that's a step up to Test cricket. He's got a really good partner down the other end [in Usman Khawaja] that over time, I think, will play out. That's all we ask for - a bit of patience and time with a young player coming into Test cricket."

Australia are committed to Konstas for this series at least. He will, barring injury, play the next two matches. A substantial score would go some way to settling things ahead of the Ashes, and if the pitches remain as spicy as Barbados, it would not need to be a hundred. But otherwise, it will likely be another open season heading into the summer.

Unsurprisingly in an Ashes year, Konstas' performances have not gone unnoticed in England - and not in a flattering way. None of that has to matter, of course, it's all part of the phoney Ashes war, which is an undercurrent to this series and the England vs India contest which began in such epic fashion at Headingley. But, from Australia's perspective, they will be keen to quieten the noise, so for Konstas (and a slightly less extent Cameron Green), the next couple of weeks are hugely important.

The technical challenges Konstas faces from the delivery coming in also pose an interesting question. Is it something so significant that it should have been ironed out in domestic cricket first? It was evident at the Under-19 World Cup last year and for New South Wales. Bumrah then delivered a repost at the MCG by dismissing him in that manner in the second innings.

"I think on that type of surface [in Barbados] it's an issue for everyone," McDonald said. "He's been on the record around working on his technique in the winter and some small adjustments and how they play out in training versus under extreme pressure is always a different sort of pattern.

"He knows his deficiencies but, from a batting perspective, I encourage all players to learn to play with their deficiencies. I don't think there's such a thing as a perfect technique. If that's what you're looking for then I think you're looking in the wrong place.

"He'll learn to play with what he's got. We're a team that encourages run-scoring. Did he lose his intent at certain times in that innings? Was he looking at his defensive layers rather than potentially putting some pressure back on? I think that's really the balance he needs to strike. I think he's good enough. It'll just take some time for him to adapt."

There is a significant contrast in the Australia side between two of its recent newcomers: Konstas and Beau Webster, who made their debuts in consecutive Tests. The latter, with years of domestic experience behind him, has scored three half-centuries in five outings - two on incredibly tricky pitches plus another against a very good South Africa attack - and the step up has looked less daunting, notwithstanding what Konstas did in his first Test innings.

"We're always going to have varying degrees of experience within that order and we like to have a balance of that," McDonald said. "In one basket, you've got Beau Webster, who's played a lot of first-class cricket, and you say that's the way to go. And then, in the other one, you've got Sam Konstas and Cameron Green, who learn on the job.

"I don't think there's any perfect lead-in to Test cricket and I don't think we should look for that. But what I will say around [Webster] is that he knows his game. He's enjoying the problems at hand and he's solving them with great intent and temperament. At times he looks technically compromised and we saw that at Lord's. He's going to be challenged with that, but he's a run-scorer. He's made an art of it."