Sam Konstas

Sam Konstas was earmarked for big things from the days he was churning out hundreds at age-group, school and grade cricket - piling up nearly 5000 runs in the latter - but his rise to the top level still came at remarkable speed.

At the beginning of the 2024-25 season he had played just four first-class matches, but he began the summer with twin hundreds against South Australia - the youngest to do so in the Sheffield Shield since Ricky Ponting - to vault him into the Test selection race when Steven Smith was confirmed as moving back to the middle.

Initially, though, he missed the cut having been one of three specialist openers selected for Australia A to face India A only for the selectors to go for middle-order batter Nathan McSweeney as their first choice. Yet, little more than a month later, the call came when there was a sharp u-turn in thinking after the first three Tests of the Border-Gavaskar series. In that intervening period Konstas had scored 107 off 97 against the touring Indians for the Prime Minister's XI.

Konstas was born 20 days after the 2005 Ashes finished. He scored a century against West Indies in the 2024 Under-19 World Cup and is mentored by former Australia allrounder Shane Watson.