NEWS
Follow UsAustralia’s Travis Head has been one of the best all-format batters in the last two years. The left-handed batter has produced insane numbers across all three formats in this period and on September 19 (Thursday), Head once again stamped his authority.
Head smashed 154* off 129 deliveries and made a mockery of England’s 316-run target in the first ODI at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. The 30-year-old opens for Australia in white-ball cricket but bats in the middle-order in Test cricket.
After David Warner’s retirement from Test cricket, Steven Smith moved to the top of the order from his regular spot at number four but has had lukewarm results. Barring an unbeaten 91 in the second innings of the Gabba Test against the West Indies, Smith has managed scores of 11, 9, 31, 0, 6, 12 and 11* in the remaining seven innings.
Now, ahead of the blockbuster Border-Gavaskar Trophy, there have been talks of pushing Smith back to No.4, leaving the opening slot up for grabs. Usman Khawaja, the only incumbent, feels Head could be a good option at the top against India later this year. Head has four innings as an opener in Test cricket, hitting 180 runs at an average of 60.
"I feel like Travis Head might be best suited. He's obviously been very successful opening the batting in one-day cricket… The confidence transfers over. When you're seeing the ball well, scoring lots of runs and not much is going through your head, it's a great place to be,” Khawaja said last week.
When asked if he is aware of the speculation in the media at home, Head said: “Yes! "Keep the chatter; it makes it interesting. I'm not going to dive into that. I'll just let that play out."
Coming back to the first ODI, Head slammed 20 fours and five maximums and only left the field once the job was done. In the process, he recorded the highest total by an Australian batter against England in England. He was so good that even England’s interim white-ball coach Marcus Trescothick couldn’t stop praising him.
“He’s a serious player. The form he’s in and the way he’s going about his work is very tough for us. You can see how good a player he is and the impact he has had on all the games,” Trescothick said.
“If he gets in and gets momentum going, he’s hard to bowl at, for sure. Eventually, the worm will turn, and hopefully, we get on top of that and get a bit of luck on the other side.”
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