Teen sensation Sam Konstas set to be Australia's youngest Test opener, McSweeney dropped

Selectors have made a major change to the XI ahead of MCG Test

Sam Konstas is on the verge of making a historic Test debut at the MCG.

Nathan McSweeney has been dropped after just three Tests, a victim of collective failure as much as his individual inability to get going in this series.

Cricket Et Al was singing Konstas’s praises earlier in the summer after witnessing his 152 and 105 against South Australia in the first Shield match, where he became the youngest since Ricky Ponting to score back to back hundreds.

He demanded attention again with an audacious century against the Indians for the PM’s XI and recently proved he has a game for all formats when, on debut for the Sydney Thunder, he made the fastest ever half century for that franchise.

I’d got pretty excited about him and stuck my neck out on Offsiders. That said, there’s many a time I’ve stuck it out and made an absolute goose of myself.

Selector George Bailey would not guarantee the prodigy a start on Boxing Day, but he seems the right fit. Beau Webster and Josh Inglis are the other possibilities.

If he plays, at just 19 years and 85 days, he will be the youngest ever to open for Australia. Only Ian Craig (17 years and 23 days), Pat Cummins (18 years and 193 days) and Tom Garrett (18 years and 23 days) made their debut at a younger age. (Garrett is the great grandfather of Midnight Oil’s Peter Garrett).

Selectors gambled in elevating McSweeney to the top of the order and could have carried him for longer had those more experienced batters around him been scoring runs.

However, his opening partner Usman Khawaja has 63 runs at an average of 11.8, first drop Marnus Labuschagne has 82 runs at an average of 16.4 and next in, Steve Smith, bolstered his tally with a hundred in Brisbane but still has only 124 runs at an average of 24.8.

The kid has been sacrificed out of respect for the veterans who have at least proved themselves at this level over the long term.

The defensive approach of those around McSweeney did not help as well, with Bailey admitting they need to “throw something different at India”. He would, however, not be drawn on whether Konstas will play.

“We've had sort of preliminary chats, I think, given the given the frenetic-ness of the last sort of three Tests, respecting that there is a little bit of a gap to Melbourne, so clearly, we've got a number of options there. So we'll just work through that. We'll be really clear prior to Boxing Day,” Bailey said.

“It's a tough, tough call, really hard decision for for Nathan, and one that we spent a lot of time deliberating over, as I said, particularly after a small sample size of three Tests.

“Nathan was disappointed, and the message to him was much the same as at the start of the series; that we believe that he's got the ability and temperament to succeed at Test level, but just given the way the series has played out, we just want the option of throwing something different at India for this next Test.

“Sam alternatively, was, as you would imagine, incredibly excited.”

Bailey defended the decision to pick McSweeney who was in competition for the position with Konstas, Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft and others.

“In the lead up to the series he was performing incredibly well. I think the key around that was the fact that his methodology in the way he plays we believed doesn’t change too much wherever he's coming in in the order. It hasn't, hasn't quite worked out as you'd like it to yet at the start of that, but it's still very much the start of his career.

“I think you can say that you know, the top the way our top three are playing has been reasonably similar, and we like, like the ability to throw something different at India on the back of that. But I think if you know, you look more broadly, I don't think necessarily the top six, top six has quite function to the to the level that we that we need in this series as a whole.

“I think you're always looking for your senior players to be the leaders in how you play.”