Travis Head put on a show with the bat on the opening day of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final between Australia and India at the Oval in London.
The southpaw arrived in the middle when Australia were in a spot of bother at 76/3 after being asked to bat first. Head wreaked havoc on Indian bowlers from the outset, notching up his half-century in 60 balls and then reaching the three-figure mark in 106 deliveries.
The left-hander stayed unbeaten on 146 from 156 balls at the close of play on Day 1, helping Australia pile up 327/3 on the board. In the process, he shared an unbroken 251-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Steve Smith, who returned with 95 not out.
After the day’s play, Travis Head said batting alongside Smith brings out his best performances on the field.
“I've always said I do really enjoy batting with Steve because of how much attention he receives. He's one of the best players in the world, probably our best player," Head stated.
“He's our best batter, he's unbelievable in these conditions, and he receives so much attention from opposition in terms of plans and how difficult he is to bowl to, so I've always said going out to bat with him, it feels like you're in the shadow of that, you can sort of stay under the radar and go about your business,” he added.
Travis Head said his current frame of mind and the technical changes he made to his batting after 2019 has played a massive part in his consistent run.
“Losing the toss in the morning I thought it was going to be a challenging day. Nice to contribute nice to get a good start,” Head said.
“I said in the lead in to the game, if balls are there to be scored off I am going to score off it. There were challenging periods but the ball gets to the boundary very quickly here if you find middle of the bat,” he added while talking about his approach.
“Technically, I have made those changes but for all around. I felt I needed to adapt to each condition. The foundations in my game has surely a changed a lot since 2019.”
(With PTI Inputs)
