Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Travis Head proves to be a thorn in India’s flesh again

After the World Test Championship (WTC) final at The Oval and the 50-overs World Cup final in Ahmedabad last year, now the day-night Test in Adelaide. Travis Head continues to be a thorn in the flesh for India as his brisk, counterattacking century at his home ground was a testimony that the Australians had not really gone ‘soft’ in their approach.

An innings of 140 off 141 balls, with a strike-rate of nearly 100, from Australia’s pugnacious No.5 tells it’s own story. It was his eighth in a short career and Head dedicated it to his newborn baby Harrison with a gesture of rocking his bat like a cradle after reaching the landmark in just 111 balls – very much setting up the Test for Australia by the end of second day’s play.

It’s hardly a surprise that India would have had to play catch-up after folding up for 180 in the first innings, but their batters once again fell prey to the probing line from the Starc-Cummins-Boland trio. With a deficit of  29 runs and the top order already back in the hut, it seems Australia should be able to maintain their near-perfect record in pink ball Tests unless there is a miracle.

The South Australian, much like the two famous salvage acts before against India, stuck to his own philosophy of taking the attack to the rival camp to deflate the bowlers. In a strategy honed by the likes of Mathew Hayden, Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist in the past, Head picked up on veteran off spinner Ravi Ashwin for special treatment with the wicket hardly offered any grip or turn for three of his four sixes.

 He despatched Mohammed Siraj over square leg for a six but the very next ball, Siraj had the last laugh with an yorker and gave a heated send-off to the Aussie batter. There was a round of booing from a section of the crowd and the seamer was seen complaining about it to the umpire – but there are no prizes for guessing that Head had actually managed to get under the skin of the Indians. Coming in at the fall of Steven Smith’s wicket, he and Marnus Labuschagne continued to frustrate the Indian bowlers in their distinctive styles.

Record setter Head

 Their stand yielded 65 valuable runs for the fourth wicket with Labuschagne dropping anchor in the way he is known for but Head not losing an opportunity to punish anything loose. The southpaw took a particular liking for Harshit Rana as the youngster started to crumble under pressure. The faultlines in Indian bowling attack was exposed for a while when Bumrah went down with a groin niggle, but fortunately for them, he was back on his feet soon and cleaned up Pat Cummins for a four-wicket haul.

 Incidentally, this is the second time Head broke his own record for the fastest hundred in pink ball Tests in a span of three years. He had notched up three figures off 125 balls versus the West Indies in Adelaide in 2022, went on to lower it with a century off 112 balls  against England at Hobart the same year – and now got it of 111 against a decent Indian attack.