Konstas to come in over dropped McSweeney for Melbourne must-win

Selectors have swung the knife, with Nathan McSweeney to be dropped from Australia’s squad for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne in favour of giving rising star Sam Konstas a direct line into the batting order.

McSweeney, who made 72 runs at 14.4 in three Tests, was told yesterday afternoon.

So too was Konstas – the 19-year-old was pulled from Sydney Thunder training to take the call-up call.

Konstas will now have a little under a week to prepare for the biggest match of his life; he should very likely debut in front of a 90,000-strong Melbourne crowd at the MCG on Boxing Day.

That preparation won’t begin right away though, with Konstas still lined up to play for the Thunder on Saturday in the Big Bash League’s first Sydney derby of the 2024/25 season. He’ll then jet to Melbourne to join the Test squad.

It’s a cruel call for McSweeney but not an overly unsurprising one. The 25-year-old has struggled to stamp his name in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series – though neither have any Aussie batters not named Travis Head, really – and has been heavily debated by selectors for some days now. His single-digit scores were the biggest topic in the last hours.

“I’ll continue to get better and learn the tricks of the trade,” McSweeney said before being dropped.

McSweeney – who, remember, is not a specialist opener – was battered by all-stars Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj.

Head selector George Bailey had originally refused to call McSweeney’s inclusion in the first three Test matches “a guess” on ABC Radio before the series got underway. “We could all run our fingers down the list of leading run-scorers… but that’s not necessarily how cricket teams work. It’s how they fit together.”

“The point was, in our minds, that it won’t be a major adjustment for him. Talking to Nathan, the way he prepares to go and play for South Australia, when he does bat at No.3, is it’s a very similar mindset and very similar way he’ll approach it.

“We think he’s got the game that will succeed at Test level.”

Things obviously changed sentiment-wise for the selectors through the first three Tests though.