Test star Nathan Lyon says Sam Konstas still the future despite missing Ashes squad

Test veteran Nathan Lyon says dumped opener Sam Konstas remains “the future of Australian cricket” but needs to go back to the Sheffield Shield to learn more about the game and how he wants to play it after losing his spot in the squad to Jake Weatherald.

Konstas, 20, burst onto the scene with an eye-catching 60 on debut in the Boxing Day Test last year when he wasn’t afraid to play wild shots against a quality attack featuring Jasprit Bumrah.

But that fearless array of shots has brought him unstuck, with the opener struggling for runs in the West Indies and to begin the Shield season.

It’s why he was left out of the 15-man squad for the first Ashes Test, with Jake Weatherald and Marnus Labuschagne the likely options to partner Usman Khawaja at the top of the order.

Lyon, his NSW teammate and captain in the opening round of the Shield this season, said Konstas needed some time out of the spotlight to get better.

“It’s obvious that the amount of media attention on Sam is there,” Lyon said in Sydney.

“It’s really important for Sam to come back to NSW cricket and just really find a way because at the end of the day, he’s just turned 20.

“We all expect that he’s going to be the end product now, but the reality is that he’s learning about the game and he’s learning about the way he wants to go out to bat, and he needs to go find that and he needs to believe in it.

“I’ve got full confidence that he’ll be back bigger and better. He’s the future of Australian cricket – we all know that – but we just need to give him some time to go out there and figure it out himself.”

While Konstas has enjoyed a rapid rise to the top, Weatherald has had to wait a little longer for an opportunity to represent his country.

Weatherald turned 31 this week and was rewarded for his consistent Shield form after finishing last season as the competition’s leading scorer.

Patience doesn’t always pay off, but Lyon is thrilled to see the Tasmanian opener earn his shot just as Michael Hussey did when he finally broke into the Test side at 30 after a mountain of first-class runs.

“You look at the numbers that Jake’s provided over the last couple of years in Shield cricket for Tassie, and it’s been exceptional,” Lyon said.

“It’s good old-fashioned banging down the door with the amount of runs he’s been able to get, and the way he’s got them in pretty challenging conditions at times over those years (has been great to see), so I’m very happy for Jake.

“If you look back at the history of Shield cricket, it shows the importance of it (consistently scoring runs).

“You look at Mike Hussey and the number of runs he banged down the door with for a number of years until he got his Test debut.

“I think ‘Huss’ debuted at around a similar age to hopefully what Jake does, so it shows that Shield cricket is pretty important and that it’s the backbone of Australian cricket.”