I repeat the direction I received from Dan Christian after the Australian under-19 tour of the UK in 2023: “Just pick him and leave him there”. That was when Konstas was 17. My fellow NSW selectors and I were reluctant at first because he was so young, but even dullard selectors must concede to the bleeding obvious.

From the time of his first selection in the Blues senior team he has been a prolific run maker and shown respect and humility. Konstas could be a disciple of fellow Hurstville Oval run machine Donald Bradman, whose mantra was to conduct your life with “integrity, courage and, perhaps most of all, with modesty. These virtues are totally compatible with pride, ambition and competitiveness”.

That credo just about sums Konstas up, even in his tender teenage years. Granted the crowds at Sheffield Shield games aren’t clambering over fences or each other to grab a selfie or an autograph, as they were at the Melbourne and Sydney Cricket Grounds, but in those state games he has batted mostly within the limits of orthodoxy and behaved impeccably. In 11 first class games before his first Test, he wouldn’t have played more than three ramp shots in total, but he did practice the shot often.

So why the new-found on-field ruckus?

A grey-bearded cricket pundit of the amateur but experienced ranks described Konstas as “childishly crass” and “arrogantly reckless”, who “throws his wicket away recklessly” and has “obvious technique problems”. I’ll spare you the rest of the sermon.

All this from a young man who turned a series on its head against the best bowler in the world batting on a fresh cabbage patch and had to suffer an icon of the game attempting to physically intimidate him. Bradman would acknowledge his “courage” in response.

Konstas’ simple request for India captain Jasprit Bumrah to wait while his batting partner, Usman Khawaja, appropriately prepared himself for the next delivery was met with a barrage of bile, indicating just how much two Test innings of chaos and success can discombobulate a vulnerable opponent. It would have helped if Uzzie hadn’t nicked the last ball, but you get that in sport.

The evolution from a church mouse in his early cricket to a media and fan hound within 26 balls of his Test career could neither be predicted nor managed. Fans young and old have been drawn unconditionally into the Konstas tornado, short-lived as it has yet been. You can’t judge a book by its cover, they reckon, and Sam’s only just opened the first pages of the first chapter of what may well turn into a classic (check back with me in 50 Tests or so for confirmation).

There is a photograph from the MCG Test of Konstas in mid-shot, mid-ramp if you like. Both feet are girder straight, upright and almost touching each other, his bat is at 90 degrees to his body and the ball hangs directly above his “baggy green helmet” like an inverted exclamation point. There seems no way to generate a forceful hit of the ball. The result is a boundary four, inches from a six.

That is the way of the modern game. There can be no greater contrast in style to that demonstrated in the famous Beldam picture of Victor Trumper, driving down the ground with sparking feet more than a body width apart, front foot midair, flashing hands high, ready to strike – dynamism in a still frame. Both methods work and on another day in another innings that will be Konstas, too.

If the accusation of arrogance comes from playing audacious strokes, then there is a complete misconception of what “skill” really is. Malcolm Gladwell in his best-selling book Talking to Strangers reminds us of the dangers in judging too quickly.

“We think we can easily see into the hearts of others based on the flimsiest of clues,” he writes. “We jump at the chance to judge strangers. We would never do that to ourselves, of course. We are nuanced and complex and enigmatic. But the stranger is easy.”

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Konstas might not quite be the complete stranger since December 26, but the cricket world and beyond are going to learn a lot more about him in the next 15 years or so. I’m betting that respect and humility are cornerstones of his progress.

The Konstas enigma may grow or recede, or pretend it never existed. No matter which, it’s going to be a box-office ride – and he is going to make a load of entertaining runs along the way.