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GH with a short history of being picked for Australia

Welcome to Narnia, Sam Konstas. Narnia, the fantasy land in C. S. Lewis’s books of magic and myth, was the name my friend Ed Cowan gave to the somehow similar world of Test selection, where everything was suddenly bigger, brighter and wilder, where stuff appeared without your asking, where you were somehow the centre of everything by dint of a seemingly small step: the addition of your name to a list of others was like walking into Lewis’s wondrous wardrobe.

Sam Konstas arrived in Melbourne on Sunday afternoon to be swept to the Australian team’s plush apartments in Southbank. He was presented him with a multi-page dossier on his forthcoming Indian opponents, added to manager Urmila Rosario’s team WhatsApp and batting coach Mike Di Venuto’s batting group WhatsApp - even as Nathan McSweeney, whom Konstas replaced, underwent the same process in reverse (with the consolation at least of, having played three Tests, been upgraded to a full Cricket Australia contract). Yesterday he joined the magic circle of his teammates for the public-private event of the Australian cricket team’s Christmas, although he may have found this as hard to concentrate on as another Boxing Day new cap, Brett Lee.

News Limited photographer Phil Hillyard, who I was to become good mates with, asked if he could take a shot of me with a baggy green cap on my head. I refused because I wasn’t going to touch it until I could wear it properly and no-one could take it away from me. Phil eventually took another photo that painted my thoughts perfectly: it was of me looking at the cap in a Christmas stocking. It was the only gift I wanted.