Konstas learned to soak pressure. Now the selectors have to soak up 426 runs

The Sam Konstas the world met on Boxing Day 2024 against India had one setting: go. It was thrilling, and then it was found out. Ten Test innings, 163 runs, an average of 16.3, and a ticket back to the Sheffield Shield.

The version batting for New South Wales this summer looks like a different product. Against South Australia at Sydney's Cricket Central he made 173 off 272 balls in the second innings. It is the highest first-class score of his career and the longest innings he has ever played.

A 272-ball knock is not something the 2024 Konstas would have recognised. That is exactly his point.

Konstas told AAP his batting is "lot different" now. He talks about learning from his past, forming a plan before he bats, and picking his moments rather than attacking everything.

He gives a lot of the credit to red-ball volume, especially his time in India with Australia A. "I learnt a lot from there," he said.

And he is not pretending he does not want the baggy green back. "Obviously I want to be playing at the top level, and for me it's just scoring runs at Shield and then see what happens."

That is the right line to take publicly. It is also a little modest, because the runs are already there.

The 173 had its moments of luck. He was caught at deep square leg on 14, off a Wes Agar no-ball. He was dropped on 69 by Jason Sangha at first slip.

But the old Konstas did not need two lives to make a big score. He needed two lives to survive a session. This time he cashed in, and he says that is deliberate: "I'm happy to convert my starts to big scores. Especially when you're moving nicely, you're just trying to cash in."

Look at the run of scores again: 71, 151 not out, then 5, 2 and 24, then 173. The slump did not turn into a spiral. He reset and went big in the very next innings. That is a Test-match skill.

Greg Chappell, who has backed Konstas from the start, said he was "great to see him bouncing back" and that Konstas believing he can be a good player is "half the battle".

Chappell also gave the selectors' brief in one line: they "just want to see some people knocking the door down". Konstas is not knocking. He is leaning on it with 426 runs.

And the door is wider than it was a week ago. Marnus Labuschagne has already been dropped for the first Test against New Zealand, in Perth from December 9. Selector Tony Dodemaide watched this round of the Shield, and the squad is due to be named after it.

Recall him. Not as a punt on talent this time, but because the numbers say so: the Shield's leading run-scorer, averaging 85.20, playing longer innings than he ever has.

The real question is where. David Warner argued last month that Konstas could bat at No. 3, the spot Labuschagne just vacated. That might be the smartest way in: away from the brand-new ball that exposed him as an opener, and with the licence to attack once the shine is gone.

The risk is the same as last time: picking him on hype and dropping him on the first bad week. If Australia bring him back, they should pick him for the whole New Zealand series and let him actually settle. The 2024 Konstas never got to learn on the job. The 2026 one already did that learning in the Shield.