Former Australian Opener says he was surprised to see young gun Sam Konstas left out of the first test side against Sri Lanka after a strong debut on home soil.
The 19 year-old played the last three tests of the Australia-India series, where he established himself as a capable opener for the Aussies before being selected for the two-test tour of Sri Lanka.
However, the New South Welshman fell victim to a batting squeeze, which saw West Aussie Josh Inglis make his debut and Travis Head pushed into the opening slot usually occupied by Konstas.
After going unselected for the first test in Galle, Konstas was sent home to play for New South Wales in the upcoming Sheffield Shield round commencing this week.
Speaking ahead of the second test, Wood says although surprised by the selectors’ decision on Konstas, they made the right one.
“You come in and sort of set the world on fire and there’s would have been a great opportunity to blood him into the subcontinent against, let’s face it as a pretty mediocre opposition at the moment,” he told SportFM.
“But in saying that, the selectors, in the end, they did the right thing. Head’s very important over there, obviously getting the team off to a real flying start.
“Inglis has been around the place. I know they really wanted to try and get him into the into the test side and play red ball cricket.
“That opportunity presented themselves and obviously, Konstas was the casualty in that.”
Inglis became the fourth player to earn their Baggy Green this summer and burst onto the scene with a respectable 102 off 94 balls in his maiden test innings.
The West Aussie product also smashed a batting record-breaking, surpassing Mark Waugh’s record for the quickest Australian century made on debut. The record was smashed by 36 deliveries, with the wicketkeeper-batsman bringing up the ton in 90 balls.
Inglis also moved up to second in the all-time quickest debut centuries list, sitting second to India’s Shikhar Dhawan’s record set in 2013.
“It was outstanding,” said Wood.
“I think he’s been in the system for a long time. He’s certainly had to wait for his chance and we took it with both hands last week.
“It was a tremendous innings and, you know, I think he got 100 under 100 balls. That’s an outstanding scoring rate. Sets himself up for a long future, hopefully in Test cricket.”
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