The cheeky chatter on social media, when Travis Head walked out to bat following the fall of the fourth wicket, were enquiries of his stats against a Rohit Sharma-led team versus all other captains. Rude, you’d think, a narrative driven by fan clubs that, at times, drive forward the conversation to the detriment of the team’s unity.
Not this time, though.
Indian fans, already bedazzled by Head’s heroics in two finals in the space of five months last year, have been edgy and uneasy every time the ten-letter named cricketer whose first name extends into travesty for them is mentioned.
Since the start of 2023, Head has batted 19 times against India, making 1,052 runs at an average of 61.88 and a strike rate of 97.04. There have been three hundreds, all over 135, and four fifties, three of which are knocks between 76 and 90. He has also hit 24 sixes, joint-most against India in this period alongside Daryl Mitchell, and as many as 140 fours, nearly twice more than the second player on the list. Ouch.
The figures that were being asked for are, on the surface level, humorous, but dig deeper and there will be layers to unpack. Whenever Head has played against an Indian team led by Rohit, he averages 77.54 across formats. Without him at the helm, the average falls to 29.25 in 25 innings, a decent sample size. Even overall, against all other teams and all other captains, Head’s average is merely 39.11. So what do India under Rohit do wrong? Or is it just a coincidence?
Let’s go back to the World Test Championship final last year. Head’s vulnerability against the short ball was well-known ahead of the game. He had an awkward response to that kind of bowling and seemed to be caught in two minds against them, if bowled at the right height. India’s tactic could have been simple - cramp Head, whose is known to look for frequent scoring options through the off-side, for room with an aggressive field. At some point, Head would have looked to break free and possibly fallen into India’s trap.
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Instead, India bowled just one short ball in the first 29 balls to him, during which he raced away to 32 runs. By the time India found the right lengths, Head was already in the nineties, and a large score loomed.
Drudgingly, let’s also go back to the horrors of November 19, 2023. Head, opening the innings, saw his team fall to 47-3 in a run chase of 240. Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah were breathing fire and Head was batting on 10 off 15 at the point. This time, while the bowlers did target the batter with the ocassional short ball, India were guilty of having a defensive field, including no slip for the spinners. Head also played and missed several balls on the line of the stumps and just outside as India kept bowling fuller and fuller.
His 137 that night broke a billion hearts but also fiercely established him as a batter unafraid of situations and conditions.
Fast forward a year later. When India landed in Australia, the usual suspects were touted as the biggest threats. There was Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja but India, having been pierced by Head too soon in too short a time, knew the dangers the left-hander possessed.
It all unravelled once again on Saturday at Adelaide as Head consolidated Australia’s position in the game, taking them from 103-3 to a strong 157-run lead by the end of the first innings.
Head was in charge from the very start, driving Bumrah for a boundary on the third ball of his innings. He was relatively cautious upfront, scoring 32 runs in the first 50 balls, before shifting gears. He punished any width outside the off stump, of which he strangely received plenty. Playing a typical counter-attacking innings, Head kept looking for and finding boundary opportunity irrespective of the lengths that were bowled to him, often going over the in-field as well.
He reached his fifty off 63 balls and needed just 48 more for his eighth Test hundred, the quickest that has ever been scored in a pink-ball Test match, and only the second against India in a day-night Test. If those were not enough wounds for India, Head went into ultra-aggressive mode thereafter. With the new ball due in eight overs, he latched onto the opportunity when a wayward Harshit Rana and an ineffective R Ashwin were bowling. He continued with the same approach once the ball was changed, going after Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj in a bid to stall them from finding a rhythm. In the end, his dismissal was as dramatic as his innings had been - loud, assertive and staring the opposition eye-to-eye.
While Head’s range of shots was impressive and deserves due credit, India were not up to the mark with their plans. They bowled just four - yes, that’s correct - bouncers to him, bowling 45 per cent short of good length and 34 per cent on length instead. This allowed him to comfortably play horizontal bat shots to balls that rose up to his midriff, not nearly high enough to cause him trouble. Open fields also greeted Head when he walked out, a recurring theme under Rohit's captaincy that has come under severe criticism of late.
It is not to say that Head only succeeded because of poor bowling efforts. He walked in with an attitude to dominate, as he usually does, and converted every scoring-chance he got. But there is reason to believe that India, under Rohit, faltered against Head yet again.
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