Mondays with Ronnie

PL: The Australian coach answers the travelling journos questions about Konstsas, Green, Marnus, Starc's 100th game, prioritising domestic cricket and more

Andrew McDonald sat down with the Australian press pack in Grenada to answer questions about all things Test cricket. I’ve let the transcript run, but italicised a few key comments.

McDonald and some of the press pack

A convincing 133-run win, happy with it?

Certainly more positive signs: the way that Sam Konstas went about it in the first innings, the method that he applied, albeit only a small contribution, was an improvement on the first Test, and I thought Cameron Green, both innings, if you take out that over before lunch where he made a couple of errors in the way that he was attacking. The second innings was a big stride forward in a position that we think you can prosper in.

Have the conditions been closer to home conditions than you thought, and as a resul,t can you draw a straight line from these performances to the Ashes?

When you've got Dukes balls, the surfaces that we have played on, there's been a lot of variable bounce and sideways movements. So it's probably not similar to Australia. Maybe some surfaces like Perth, potentially, when it does crack a little bit, it can go up and down a little bit sideways. But I think that the first sort of four rounds of Shield cricket will draw a better connection to the Ashes than what we're seeing here. What we are seeing here, though, is people getting exposed to Test level, and within that exposure, I mean, the mental challenges of Test cricket are real. There's so many other layer to Test cricket, stepping up from domestic, so we probably get more information in that area than than a correlation between the conditions and the opponent.

So, are we heading for another Great Australian Bat Off?

I'm not going to call it that, you guys will hang on to that and publish that everywhere. So that'll be your language that you use. There's great opportunity in domestic cricket at the start of the season, and there always is leading into any Test series. We saw with the Border Gavaskar Trophy last year, there was opportunity for players to put their hand up there. There's also Australia A at the top end at the moment, so we're watching that closely. There's a little bit of connection to the 2027 World Cup in that as well with those three One Dayer that they’re playing. It's really about the opportunity that presents, people that take it. And first and foremost, we concentrate on what's here, right here, right now. So everyone will be speculating around who can come in, what possibilities are, but we're confident the players that we've got here that can do the job. And as you saw, small steps forward last game with the top order. Do we want some more output there? There's no doubt about that. But in the context of this series, it's, it's been very tricky at the top of the order, with variable bouncing, sideways, the ball moving. So we're real about that. Do you

How closely are you involved with the A series?

We have input as a selection panel, definitely and as a coach, and it's trying to strike the balance for the here and now and also the future. And if you looked at a little glance in the future, Ollie Peak (18-year-old Vic who made Shield debut in March), that was a real positive step forward. He hasn't played a lot of domestic cricket, and to get an opportunity in Australia A, balanced in with some senior players that have been established in international cricket before. George (Bailey) is always on the record about striking that balance, in particular in our winter, when it gets into our summer, sometimes it takes on the shape of the second-best team.

Where does Marnus go from here?

We'll start with Jamaican prep. So we've got three days leading into that game to get our heads around the pink ball. What that does. And think if you sat here right now and the conditions are the same as what was presented the first couple of Test matches, and everyone pulled up fine, then it's highly unlikely for any change. But when we arrive there pink ball conditions, and we'll check in with the players tomorrow as to where they're medically all at. So at this stage, there's nothing to suggest anything's wrong with anyone, but we'll just work through that sort of process and get ourselves ready for that Test. Once we are on the park, then we can start to decide what it potentially looks like for players. There's been some conversations around what we look like for Marn, there’s opportunity in England, opportunity within the Sri Lanka A games if we wanted to take that up. Or does he stay here and then take a little bit of a break leading into to our summer?

If Cam Green is your No.3 does Marnus have to look at himself as an opener to get back in when he goes back to Shield?

No, that doesn't mean that at all. And we're not going to direct states as to where players should bat, but Marn will bat the top three somewhere for Queensland. He's done that over a long period of time, probably likely number three. They've got a couple of openers there in Renshaw and also Usi as well. So it won't be, I don't think, a matter of him opening the batting for Queensland, if he's making runs at three that starts to make the case for his re-entry, and what that may look like.

When will you make a call on what Marnus does next?

Once we get into the Test match, so once we tick off the final part of the prep, we can start to discuss what it then looks like. Do we take on some risk in releasing players out, if there's a concussion side, there's all types of scenarios that we need to sort of mitigate against, and ultimately, the starting point for us, we want our players playing however, we are a long way from anywhere if someone should move on.

How will you balance players being in the A games and the Shield?

The four-day games won't clash. So there's two four-day games against India A and then there's three one day games on the back end of that where there is a potential clash. We'll strike the balance of prioritising Test cricket. And with that in mind, Shield Round One versus the other guys that potentially aren't in the frame for that. So there will be a prioritisation around Test series, and by extension domestic cricket.

Konstas was king of the kids during the Boxing Day Test

How are we assessing Sam Konstas?