Warner endorses Konstas as potential BBL opening partner over fellow Australia international Cameron Bancroft.
Warner endorses Konstas to open with him as he prepares for his first full BBL season. He has picked Konstas over fellow-opener Cameron Bancroft.
Bancroft and Konstas will face more internal rivalry at Thunder just weeks after they both submitted ultimately failed applications for the Test opener berth.
The two are the most obvious choices to open the BBL with new skipper Warner at the top after Nic Maddinson’s finger surgery. Their recent records differ.
Before making another appearance for the Prime Ministers’ XI in a 50-over match against the Indians last month, Konstas, who has not yet made his BBL debut, made a memorable announcement with twin hundreds in New South Wales’ opening Shield game of the summer.
Bancroft made an undefeated 105 in Western Australia’s penultimate Sheffield Shield match before the break, but he has failed to reach 20 in 15 of 19 attempts in red and white-ball cricket this summer. Warner stated that the opening partnership had not yet been decided upon.
“We’ll speak about it this week, we’ll see in the warm-up game. I’m probably erring between myself and probably Sammy Konstas at the top,” he said.
“We know he’s talented but it’s about going out there in the Twenty20 stuff and trying to work out how to sort of play that format as well, and what he’s going to bring to the table,” Warner said. “I’ll have a chat to him about how he wants to play and what his style of cricket is as well.
“We’ll have these conversations in the next couple of days about how we want to play and making sure that everyone’s on the same page.”
Warner has been in and out of Thunder for the last two summers to Australian obligations. This is after taken as a foundation player for the first BBL summer.
In a major boost for a sport that has long struggled for star power in the absence of Test players, the 38-year-old, who is now retired from internationals, will play the entire tournament for the first time.
“I’m excited,” Warner said of the BBL. “It’s another challenge for me. I’ll uphold my own standards and make sure I’m contributing to the team and consequently getting us off to a good start and leading by example of the field with the captaincy.”