The best way to keep a batter quiet is to get him out. That’s one of the oldest, and most obvious, maxims in cricket. That’s exactly what India have failed to do quickly enough this series when it comes to Travis Head.
In five innings since the Perth Test, the 30-year-old left-hander has amassed 409 runs at the near-Bradmanesque average of 81.80. That’s damaging as it is; throw in the fact that he has scored at 94.23 runs per 100 balls faced, and the picture of a destructive, all-conquering batter who can quickly take the game away from the opposition takes firm shape.
Head’s lowest score is 11, in the first dig of the series. It took a beauty from debutant Harshit Rana, angling in from round the stumps and shaping away on pitching to crash into off-stump, to send him packing. India haven’t been able to produce special deliveries thereafter. They haven’t even been able to string together consistent pressure-building balls to keep him quiet and force him to get away from his comfort zone, which has been particularly disappointing.
A second-innings 89 at the Optus Stadium flew under the radar even though it came off only 101 deliveries because it was in a losing cause. Had India looked closely, they would have noticed the signs – typically bruising strokes square on the off-side, but also a greater emphasis on playing towards cover off the back foot and improved on-side play. Head punished them for their laxity with 140 off 141 in the pink-ball Test in Adelaide, and carried that form to the Gabba, where he smoked 152 off just 160 deliveries.
All of this means Head has contributed 35.9% of all runs scored by Australia’s batters, the rest of whom, Steve Smith included, have been a couple of notches below. For India to make a statement in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, Head must be cleaned up quickly.
How do India manage that? For starters, it will help if they can get the No. 5 to the crease as soon as possible. It’s no secret that the Kookaburra is at its most dangerous when less than 200 balls old. It will be incumbent on Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep to strike early enough to bring Head to the middle inside that period, with a fresh Bumrah chomping at the bit.
In the event of that not happening, a wide line at a fullish length, drawing Head forward when he is more at home sitting back and picking ‘em off, won’t be out of order. Head, like most batters, isn’t too comfortable when the ball is directed at his body at chest height. Another line of attack for the Indians to ponder over. But more than anything else, they must not allow Travis to get into their heads, pardon the pun. He is fallible, he is human, he is prone to errors. The trick will be to force him into those errors which, given his high-risk approach, should follow naturally.
What about Scott Boland?
Head’s icon status is a relatively new phenomenon, but Scott Boland had become a cult figure long before his belated Test debut, as a 32-year-old, against England in the Boxing Day Test in 2021. Only the fourth Indigenous player to represent Australia, the paceman quickly made up for lost time with six for seven in the second innings, his annihilation of the old enemy solidifying his standing as the peoples’ champion. Mild-mannered, softly-spoken and unassuming with a shy smile, Boland is a one-man wrecking crew though he has only played 11 Tests in the last three years, thanks to the presence of one of the pace attacks for the ages – Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
The side strain that forced Hazlewood to miss the Adelaide Test allowed Boland to make his first Test appearance for 17 months, and he was the only choice once Hazlewood was ruled out of the last two games with a calf injury. “I don’t think I’m coming to the ground on Boxing Day if Scottie is not the XI,” joked Australian coach Andrew McDonald on Tuesday, alluding to the support the hometown hero will get at the MCG, where he has ten wickets from two Tests at an average of 13.80.
There is no great mystery to Boland’s bowling. He is relentlessly accurate, like Hazlewood, but he can produce the occasional unplayable ball. His greatest asset is his sustained probing line outside off, the line that has triggered many an Indian heartbreak over the last month. How do India deny him? By showing the kind of discipline and self-restraint of which KL Rahul has become the brand ambassador, but which has steadfastly eluded his mates.
