Greg Shipperd mentored an 18-year-old Ricky Ponting and a 19-year-old Sam Konstas, 30 years apart, and believes the NSW teenager is ready to “fill a gap” at the top of the order for Australia’s Test side this summer.

As NSW coach, Shipperd also pointed to West Australian shot maker Josh Inglis as a “smokey” to be part of the squad to face India in Perth next month, as a like-for-like replacement for the very retired David Warner.

Few voices in Australian cricket are as seasoned or respected as Shipperd’s, and his unique perspective on Konstas and Ponting, having also coached Tasmania when the latter was tearing up records in domestic ranks, is worth consideration. The key difference, to Shipperd, is the quality of competition for spots.

“He was made to wait,” Shipperd said of Ponting’s three-year apprenticeship in Shield cricket. “So whether that made him or he was already made anyway, because he was scoring multiple hundreds across the course of that journey between him not being selected and finally selected I think at 21 [in 1995].

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“Ricky was trying to break into a super Australian side at that moment with probably no gaps, and there is a gap in the Australian team in the position [Konstas] bats in at the moment. So he’s worth being heavily in the conversation.

“In Sam I do see a lot of that skill level and that poise at the crease, shots on both sides of the wicket, in front of the wicket, behind the wicket, I think he’s got what it takes.”

Australia’s squad for the Perth Test is likely to comprise 13 players with one spare bowler and one spare batter, meaning two new batters will be chosen.

This means there will be room for two of Konstas, Inglis, and South Australian captain Nathan McSweeney, among leading candidates for inclusion. Michael Neser currently may be shading Scott Boland for the reserve bowling spot in Perth.