Legendary Australia skipper Steve Waugh has expressed his shock at Australia’s decision to leave out Travis Head from the playing XI of the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against India, which got underway in Nagpur on Thursday (February 9).
Head was dropped from the starting XI of the Nagpur Test with Peter Handscomb replacing him in the line-up.
The southpaw, who currently occupies the No. 4 spot in the ICC Test batting rankings, is coming into the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on the back of stunning exploits in the home Test series against West Indies and South Africa.
In five home Tests, Travis Head amassed 525 runs at a remarkable average of 87.50. His strike rate in the two series was 91.49 and 100.94, respectively.
No wonder, Waugh is finding it hard to believe that Australia have axed Head from their playing XI.
“Hard to believe we can drop the number 4 ranked test batsman in the world and probably our best batsman in the last 12 months plus he bowls better than average off spin - let’s wait and see-maybe the Aussie selectors are genius’s!,” Waugh wrote on Instagram.
Taking to about the first Test, Australia skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat. The tourists handed a debut cap to off-spinner Todd Murphy on a Nagpur pitch expected to assist the spinners.
Australia (Playing XI): David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland
