Konstas will become the fourth youngest Australian to make his Test debut at 19 years and 85 days on Boxing Day against India, with only behind Ian Craig, current captain Pat Cummins, and Tom Garrett making their debuts at a younger age.
McDonald confirmed in a press conference post training on Tuesday that Australia’s selector on duty Tony Dodemaide had told Konstas the good news on Tuesday morning, but he said confirmation on the rest of the XI would come on Christmas Day when Cummins does his pre-match press conference.
“We said from the get go, when leading into the summer, that we wouldn’t shy away, and age was no barrier,” McDonald said. And what he’s shown is a array of shots, the ability to put pressure back on to opponents and he gets his opportunity. We’re really excited for him.”
The concerns around Head’s fitness are real, although the coach is confident he will be fit to play despite clearly not being at 100%. Head suffered a very minor quad strain while batting in Australia’s second innings in Brisbane and did not field in Australia’s very brief second bowling innings before rain ended the match.
Head had a short hit on Tuesday in the nets after doing some running and some fielding on the outfield, having not done anything at Monday’s optional session.
“Has he got some things to work through? Yeah, he has,” McDonald said. “So that’s what you would have seen. There’s no concern at the moment. Has he been officially ticked off? I’m not sure. I didn’t see the sort of back end of his training session there, but I’m pretty confident he’ll play.
“I think he looked good with the bat in hand so obviously skills are in good order. Yeah, it’ll just be basically what risk is associated with that. He had a small strain to the quad.
“But no concerns from my end. He’s been able to be running, yeah, so I think he’ll be fully functional come the game time.”
Head did have a lengthy discussion with McDonald and Australia’s team physio Nick Jones shortly after his hit in the nets but the coach downplayed it’s significance.
“It was more more around his fielding position and what he was capable of there,” McDonald said. “Clearly coming off a strain he’s got that, obviously the demands of bat pad.
“So that’s all that was about. And my question to Nick Jones was just around what he’s got to do to finish off the session, so I was across it beforehand, or just making sure nothing had changed during the session, and then we just started to speak about India, what they might do. So it was nothing really that specific.”
“If we didn’t pick didn’t pick Scotty here, and I’m not allowed to declare the team, because that’s Pat’s job tomorrow, but I don’t think I’m coming to the ground Boxing Day if Scotty is not the XI. So you can go with that as well,” McDonald said.
Alex Malcolm is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo
