Sam Konstas' and the difficult 2nd album

PL on the teen whose come back in from the cold

Australia: 1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Sam Konstas, 3 Cameron Green, 4 Josh Inglis, 5 Travis Head, 6 Beau Webster, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood

West Indies: 1 Kriagg Brathwaite, 2 John Campbell, 3 Keacy Carty, 4 Brandon King, 5 Roston Chase (capt), 6 Shai Hope (wk), 7 Justin Greaves, 8 Jomel Warrican, 9 Alzarri Joseph, 10 Shamar Joseph, 11 Jayden Seales

The kids are alright

When Sam Konstas had finished Tuesday’s alternative net session, he stopped on the way back to the dressing room and fell into an easy and protracted conversation with a quartet of teenage Bajan cricketers, most of whom appeared younger than even he.

Sitting in a players dugout nearby, I tried not to eavesdrop, and it wouldn’t be right to report the snatches of conversation I did catch as they talked of bats, snacks, homework and that guy Joseph who Konstas had seen in the hotel and who’d bowled well at Brisbane, but let it be noted that there’s an endearing sweetness to this young Australian whose life seems a generation removed from those he’ll share a dressing room with this week.

Some 15 minutes later, when the last batter to finish his net, Cameron Green, walked past, Konstas offered apologies and tore himself away from his new best friends – there was a bus to catch.

Green, in passing, suddenly seemed more worldly, a little wiser, than the all-rounder who’d found himself last on the team bus only a few years before.

Patience is the critical thing at play as we anticipate Konstas’s return to the opening role in the first Test at Barbados.

Australian cricket has waited impatiently for the 19-year-old’s reappearance, our appetite and expectation high after his Boxing Day debut.

Konstas, prone to the odd rush of blood in first-class cricket since that debut, has had to learn to be patient in the game, and Cummins says the team has had to learn to be patient with this bright-eyed pup who may not yet be fully house-trained.