“Enhanced his reputation”: Konstas puts baggy green on the horizon after PM’s XI ton

Former Aussie quick Damien Fleming was impressed by Sam Konstas’ efforts in Sunday’s Prime Minister’s XI game against India.

With Day 1 of the two-day tour match lost to rain, the pink-ball clash turned into somewhat of a one-dayer and the 19-year-old certainly batted with the aggression you’d normally see against a white ball, smashing 107 off 96 balls against an Indian attack including Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, Akash Deep, Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja.

The century is the teenager’s third this season, while he also made 73 not out against India A in the second tour match at the MCG.

With his form building, Fleming is certain that Konstas will soon earn a baggy green and he thinks it could even come this summer if Marnus Labuschagne continues to struggle with the bat.

“What I love about what Sam did yesterday was he enhanced his reputation and that's all you can do,” Fleming told SEN Afternoons.

“That was brilliant from him. He's going to play, it's just a matter of when whether it's this summer or not.

“My feeling was an Aussie fan and commentator is that he doesn't play this summer because everyone else scores a lot of runs.

“But a failure for someone like Marnus means I can see Konstas coming straight in for him.”

Fleming’s overall concern with the Aussie team is the batting depth and current top three of Nathan McSweeney, Usman Khawaja and Labuschagne.

With traditional No. 3 McSweeney batting somewhat out of position and Labuschagne horribly out of form, Fleming can see a world where Konstas comes in to open alongside Khawaja allowing McSweeney to bat in his natural slot.

“My worry with this Australian team is that there's not too many batsmen that are unlucky not to be in that Australian team, which is a shame,” Fleming said.

“You want to have three or four batsmen that are unlucky and just banging down the door.

“I worry about our top three. I can't see how you can be a dominant nation over a long period of time without having the engine room – as Langer, Hayden and Ponting would call themselves – absolutely rock solid.

“You need two of the three scoring runs in every innings and for me, Usman’s probably the only real opener in this team.

“With, Nathan McSweeney, I hope he proves us wrong, and I definitely always saw him as a Test match player potentially, but I saw him probably more as a number four as a Steven Smith replacement.”

The second Test between Australia and India begins on Friday, December 6. Listen to every ball LIVE on SEN and the SEN app.