Twenty-year-old Sam Konstas did not receive a Cricket Australia contract for the 2026-27 season
General Manager of Sydney Thunder Trent Copeland has “zero doubt” young gun Sam Konstas will make his mark as an all-format player for Australia by the end of his professional cricket career.
After being overlooked for the NRMA Insurance Men’s Ashes series, the 20-year-old was left off Cricket Australia’s full contract list for the 2026-2027 season. Konstas was one of six players to not have their contract renewed, alongside Glenn Maxwell, Matt Short, Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson and the recently retired Test opener, Usman Khawaja.
Acknowledging the setback, Copeland said the Thunder batter will learn from a challenging set of circumstances that’s forced him to prove himself again through domestic cricket.
“I firmly believe he’s going to be an all-format player for Australia,” Copeland said to cricket.com.au in February.
“I think what we saw from Sam this year was, excuse the French, but the ‘holy s**t’ moment. ‘Teams are coming at me with plans. They know what my ‘go-to’s are’ … and they’re also a bit more entrenched in what weaknesses are and where places to exploit are.”
Since his memorable 65-ball 60 on Test debut against India in the 2024 Boxing Day Test, Konstas has currently only played the five matches for Australia in the format, averaging just 16.30 across 10 innings.
The 20-year-old last represented the national team during Australia’s tour of the West Indies in July, where he managed just 50 runs across six innings at an average of 8.33 in a series that was exceedingly difficult for the batters.
While he eventually lost his place in the side, speculation loomed large over Konstas prior to last summer’s Ashes, leading to events Copeland said were difficult for the NSW product to deal with.
“Amongst the Ashes lead-up, there was so much talk about who was going to be at the top of the order that he couldn’t scratch himself without it being in the paper,” Copeland said.
“He couldn’t leave his house without someone taking a photo of him, so that’s going to have been a great learning for him. He wouldn’t have liked it at the moment, but no doubt it’s going to be great for him in the long run to know at the end of the day, ‘does that stuff all really matter?’. Let’s just get back to scoring runs.”
Tasked with finding form in last season’s Sheffield Shield, Konstas ended his 2025-26 campaign as the league’s fifth-highest run-scorer with 660 runs at an average of 33. In what proved to be another difficult season for batters, Konstas passed 20 in 14 innings, but managed just one century against Queensland at the SCG.
In white-ball cricket, the Blues’ opener registered 133 runs across six matches throughout the last edition of the One-Day Cup, while in the BBL|15 he scored 151 runs in nine games for the Thunder. But despite his shortcomings in the tournaments, Copeland said he’s already seen development in Konstas’ game across the limited-overs competitions.
“People probably haven’t seen it yet… but how he bats in white-ball cricket has come on leaps and bounds,” Copeland said.
“He’s going to be fine. He’s a kid and there’s certainly zero doubt from my side.”
Konstas is currently contracted with the Thunder until the end of BBL|18, having signed a four-year contract extension with Copeland’s club in August.
The Thunder are yet to announce a head coach for next season, after they parted ways with decorated coach Trevor Bayliss who had led the men’s team for five seasons.
