Australia’s swashbuckling opener Travis Head has acknowledged India’s unprecedented dominance in white-ball cricket, hailing them as the 'strongest team' in the world.
In the ICC white-ball tournaments, the Men in Blue have lost only one out of 24 matches, with the defeat coming against Australia in the 2023 ODI World Cup final at Ahmedabad.
This glorious run has also given them two ICC titles – Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 and Champions Trophy 2025 – in the last nine months.
Despite ending India’s dream of winning the World Test Championship final and the ODI World Cup final in 2023, Head lauded the Rohit Sharma-led side for their unparalleled consistency in global events.
“They’ve always been the strongest team. I feel like that’s the games that you want to play well in. You want to play well against the best team. They’re going to consistently be the best team. It won’t stop. They’ll probably continually be playing in the finals of ICC events," Head stated in an exclusive interview with CricketNext.
“I guess when you get to that stage in an event—if you look past the last four—we’ve played them in two of those finals, and then they’ve played in the last two and won. And we’ve been fortunate enough to play well in a couple of those finals."
Having slammed match-winning centuries in the WTC final and the ODI World Cup final in 2023, Travis Head has earned the reputation of being India’s nemesis.
For Head, however, it’s always just yet another game of cricket when he comes up against the Indian team.
“They’ve been the best team. I think sometimes you go out there with that naïve attitude that there’s nothing that can go wrong, really. We win and it’s amazing. We lose, and it’s probably expected because of how strong they’ve been. I’ve always gone into those games with no real expectations, no real pressure. It’s just another game of cricket," he remarked.
“Unfortunately for India, good or bad, there’s a lot of pressure. I think as an opposition, you can feed off a little bit, and that brings you motivation, knowing that there is a lot of pressure in that change room to bring home trophies. It’s expected, much like Australia."
