As the suspense around who will partner Usman Khawaja in Australia’s Test side continues, former opener Shane Watson has explained why youngster Sam Konstas would not look out of place.

The 19-year-old has been mentored by Watson for the past three years and announced himself as a Test contender with twin hundreds in the opening round of the Sheffield Shield.

Konstas then had one of his tougher battles in a short first-class career against Victorian quick Scott Boland.

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The first innings he was trapped lbw for 2 as the Aussie cult hero worked him over. The decision itself was slightly controversial.

Konstas recovered though, scoring 43 in the second innings.

Watson believes that typifies the mindset of the young opener.

“That’s the thing, he’s a quick learner,” he told Wide World of Sports before the recent Australia A match.

“He’s also looking for ‘what can I do a little bit better to reduce the chances of that happening again?’. And whether that was a little technical thing, whether that was that little extra bit of engagement for that ball or the lead up to that ball and that was an amazing test throughout that Shield game.

“Scott Boland is as good as there is with his accuracy, his skill, and to be able to move the ball both ways so that was a really good test for Sam to be able to bounce back that first innings and really graft out that innings he did against a world class bowler.

“It just showed he’s willing to make those adjustments instead of going ‘that decision was 50-50’ or ‘I could’ve been given not out’, it was ‘what can I do to limit the chances of that happening again technically?’.

Konstas has been under the tutelage of Watson since he was discovered at Cranbrook school in Sydney’s east.

The former Test opener has imparted a number of his learnings from late in his career to Konstas and other young cricketers.

Part of that is Watson’s new online learning course The Winner’s Mindset: When Performance Matters based on his latest book, adapted and produced by the team at SafetyCulture.

Watson explained the course is a way of educating younger players through more succinct forms of text, audio and quizzes.

It comes after his previous book, Winning The Inner Battle, which gave an insight into Watson’s development as a player late in the career, where he put particular focus on the mental skills of cricket.

“If you can start that learning process out earlier like I wish I did at 15 or 16 then the mental skills habits are just the right ones and that’s who you become so your thoughts are the right ones,” he said.

“Instead of the default ones which for me were not great especially when things didn’t go well or I wasn’t getting the results I wanted, my default thoughts, like most people’s are, are the wrong ones.”

Asked about the himself as a 20-year-old compared to Konstas, Watson offers a laugh.

He sees many similarities but also glaring differences.

“The one thing that’s always jumped out at me at the start and continues to, is just how desperate he is to be the best he can and I know that’s how I was,” he said.

“I was willing to do anything the right people told me to be the best I could be.

“Sam’s always been like that around the technical side of things with his game and the continual evolution of his technical game but the mental skills side he started that journey three or four years ago.

“You can see how present he is out in the middle. We saw the two hundreds he scored in that Shield game, you can just see how he’s in his own bubble, he knows exactly what he needs to do every moment of the innings he’s out there and doesn’t get overawed by a score or what’s in front of him because he’s just fully engaged in what he needs to do.

“That was very different to me in that I could be that way but that was more circumstances around me forced me into that space. It certainly wasn’t me directing, controlling my thoughts to be able to pull me in there, certainly if my circumstances didn’t allow me to fall into it.

“It’s a great place for a young guy at 19 to be and that’s why if an opportunity comes for him to be able to play Test cricket this summer for me it’s a perfect opportunity to be able to get someone who’s scoring runs.

“A young guy into the team in an aging batting lineup and he’s certainly more than equipped to make the most of it in the short term but especially in the longer term because over the years of Australian cricket they’ve always been very good at identifying the next big thing and getting them in the team as early as possible to be able to speed up that learning process technically and mentally and everything around it so then in a couple of years time they are going to be taking over and be the main person like it has been for Cam Green over the last couple of years.”

Australia A plays one more tour match against India A, starting Thursday, following which Australian selectors will name the Test squad.

Konstas is thought to be battling it out with Nathan McSweeney for the spot at the top of the Aussie order.