Nagpur’s VCA Stadium is hosting the first Test between India and Australia, and the Indian pace duo of Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj gave the Indian team a dream start on the back of dismissing Australian opening batters Usman Khawaja (1) and David Warner (1) in just 2.1 overs.
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Australia captain Pat Cummins surprised everyone at the toss that Travis Head has been dropped from the Playing XI. The pitch is made to trouble the left-handed batters of Australia, and the Australian team management opted to play Peter Handscomb, who is a right-handed batter, over Head.
This decision has already sparked a lot of heat in the Australian media. Former Australia captain Steve Waugh also lashed out at the Australian team management for the same via an Instagram post. Head was in great form ahead of the series, and it was a surprising decision to drop him for a match as crucial as the ongoing one.
Matthew Hayden stunned over Australia dropping Travis Head in Nagpur Test
Former Australia batter Matthew Hayden expressed disbelief in the commentary box with respect to the axing of Travis Head from the Playing XI. “I can’t believe it. For me, he was the player of the [Australian] summer. I’m just speechless,” Hayden expressed shock while calling the match for Star Sports Network alongside Sanjay Manjrekar and Dinesh Karthik.
It was astonishing to see Peter Handscomb earning a Test comeback in place of Head as the latter had a bumper international summer. In addition to scoring 312 runs at an average of 156 with the help of a century and half-century each, he scored 213 runs at 53.25 with the help of three half-centuries against South Africa.
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Hayden also pointed out that Head has the ability to score quick runs and can contribute with the bat as well. Head has a strike rate of 61.14, which is better than the likes of other middle-order batters like Steve Smith (54.38), Alex Carey (58.28), Peter Handscomb (49.83), Matt Renshaw (42.50), etc.
In the last one year, Head’s S/R has been 2nd best [minimum 500 runs] in the world amongst the middle-order batters in Test cricket. Only Rishabh Pant (104.48) had a better S/R than Head (83.24). The English trio of Jonny Bairstow (80.05), Ben Stokes (75.30) and Joe Root (74.89) were other names in the top-5 list.
Head has scored five Test centuries so far, and all of them are scored in Australian conditions. In the subcontinent, he averages just 21.30, which is the third-worst performance [minimum 10 innings] by an Australian after Greg Blewett (19.40) and Riche Benaud (20.16). He struggled against spin in the last year’s Pakistan and Sri Lanka’s tours as well.
Out of his six dismissals in Asia in 2022, he got out against spinners five times. Although Head has been incredible since his comeback to the Test team, his record in the sub-continent has not been that great.
