‘You can’t be vulnerable in so many ways’: Ian Chappell slams Travis Head after unconvincing returns vs India

Ian Chappell slams Travis Head: The former Australian captain has severely criticized the Australian middle-order batsman.

Australia batsman Travis Head’s scores of 7, 38 and 17 in the ongoing Test series against India haven’t impressed former Australia captain Ian Chappell.

In what has been that kind of a period in his career, Head has transformed from being Australia’s co vice-captain alongside Pat Cummins to being among two specialist batsmen who could be dropped for the New Year’s Test.

Since the start of last year’s Ashes, Head’s 490 runs in 17 innings have come at an average of 30.62 and includes one century and two half-centuries. Head, who was demoted from the position of a co vice-captain in November last year, has scored 299 runs in seven innings at 33.22 since then.

Ian Chappell slams Travis Head

Speaking to the Wide World of Sports, Chappell didn’t mince his words before saying that Head doesn’t convince him of being “good enough for Test cricket”. In addition to Head’s mediocre form, the 77-year old further expressed disappointment with his modes of dismissal at the highest level.

“He [Travis Head] hasn’t convinced me at any point that he is good enough for Test cricket,” Chappell was quoted as saying by Wide World of Sports. “The thing that I’d say about Travis Head is, as a top order batsman, you can’t be vulnerable in so many ways. If I’m looking at him as an opponent, I’m thinking there are quite a few ways we can get this guy out.

“He was almost out first ball against the short delivery [by Jasprit Bumrah], he’s got a problem with that, he’s got a problem with nicking into the slips, he has trouble with the spinners, I can see ways there that an off-spinner like [Ravi] Ashwin would be confident in getting him out.”

Australia, who are on the brink of losing the ongoing second Test at the MCG, will have a lot of work to do before the third one. While a lot will depend on the recoveries of David Warner and Will Pucovski, the likes of opening batsman Joe Burns and Head have swords hanging over their Test spot.