Tahmid said this in a conversation with Bangladeshi journalists on Saturday, a talk organized by Prime Bank cricket Club, Tahmid’s team in a brief spell in the Dhaka Premier League several years ago. The news of Tahmid being Konstas’ batting coach has made headlines in Bangladesh.
Tahmid, speaking via Zoom, said Konstas’s instincts took over on his Test debut. “We were having dinner the night before when he told me the plan was to only take out once he got to 150,” Tahmid said. “It wasn’t really part of the plan. [to play the shot so early]. But he is someone who plays by instinct. Play with a lot of freedom. He doesn’t really think about the consequences of what people are going to say if he’s wrong. I think it is his greatest skill and asset. While many players think of the consequences as ‘what if I don’t?’ or ‘what if I come out playing’ or ‘the media and the coaching staff will attack me’.”
“Sam is quite confident in his game. After bowling and missing six times in his first ten or 12 balls, he thought the best way to put pressure on Bumrah was to try to get him away from his length. He issued a different challenge to Bumrah, which “It was really good for Sam. It really shocked India. They didn’t expect a 19-year-old to come out and play with that kind of freedom.”
Tahmid, who works with Elevate cricket Coaching, said he was not surprised by Konstas’ shot selection against a bowler of Bumrah’s class.
“Sam is someone who will play some shots and put people away, as opposed to the traditional approach. It was a bit of a gamble. It paid off for Australia. Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith were talking about how Sam’s innings gave them the chance to going out and expressing themselves was also the freedom that they probably lacked in the first three games.”
Tahmid, who first began coaching while playing in the Yorkshire Premier League in 2013, said he met Konstas when he was 14, at Cranbrook School, where Konstas had a cricket scholarship. “Five years ago I started training in Cranbrook, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Sam got a scholarship to school there. That’s where we met for the first time. He was 14. We had a really good connection from the get-go. . a couple of sessions we did at school.”
Tahmid narrated the story of how he formulated a plan for his future in cricket with Konstas’ father. “I was having dinner with his father one night. We had some Greek food, which is his heritage. I put together a little program for him to try to focus on the next phase of his life, which was playing Under-16s cricket in the New South Wales (NSW) system was where it all started for him. It was about his technical, mental and tactical game.
“He’s someone who plays by instinct. He plays with a lot of freedom. He doesn’t really think about the consequences of what people are going to say if he makes a mistake.”
Konstas added power to his game over the past 18 months when, alongside Tahmid, he worked on his white-ball skills. “He was always a technically sound player growing up. He had the fundamentals of the game. He wasn’t a very powerful player though,” Tahmid said. “He didn’t score very quickly growing up, so he concentrated a lot on his white-ball cricket in the last 18 months.
“It can be quite challenging, but nowadays you have to switch between formats. Sam plays Big Bash five or six days before the Boxing Day test. If you don’t have the ability to switch between formats, you will be left behind.”
Of course, Konstas didn’t come out with scoops, reverse punches and ramps overnight either. He has worked hard on these shots at the nets. But, Tahmid said, hitting the same shots in a high-profile match at a packed MCG requires a lot of confidence, which remains a defining characteristic of Konstas. “He’s been doing reverse ramps for five or six years in the nets. It doesn’t happen by mistake. They need a lot of preparation to go out and execute in a game. And when you have clarity from your captain and organization, it helps you go out and express yourself. You are not afraid of being dropped.
“I think he was always a confident person. He always wanted to be the best player on the field. He used to say to me after training, ‘what celebrations do you want from me when I turn a century tomorrow?’ “That’s what he told me before the Boxing Day Test too.”
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo correspondent in Bangladesh. @isam84
