Damien Fleming backs Sam Konstas to replace Marnus Labuschagne if latter’s poor form continues

Former Australian fast bowler Damien Fleming feels Sam Konstas can replace struggling Marnus Labuschagne if the latter continues his poor form in the rest of the Border-Gavaskar series against India. Labuschagne returned with scores of two and three in the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar trophy against India at the Optus Stadium, Perth, which the visitors won comprehensively by 295 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

Labuschagne was plumbed in front by Siraj in the first innings after he trudged to two runs off 52 balls. The right-hander was also dropped by Virat Kohli when he was yet to get off the mark. In the second innings, Labuschagne was trapped in front by Jasprit Bumrah when he shouldered arms to an incoming ball.

Labuschagne has struggled to get going as he has been averaging 24.5 across six Test matches in 2024 as he has scored only 245 runs.

On the other hand, Sam Konstas scored a fine knock of 107 runs off 97 balls while opening the innings for Prime Ministers XI against India and thus bagged the Player of the Match. 

Meanwhile, Australia has named their squad for the second Test match against India but Konstas could not find a place despite scoring a fine hundred.

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

The second Test match between Australia and India, which will be a pink-ball game, will be played at Adelaide Oval from December 6 onwards.