Travis Head has been a headache for the Indian team since the 2023 WTC Final, which cost India two ICC trophies: the WTC Championship 2021-23 and the 2023 ODI World Cup. Head was the man of the match in both the WTC final of 2023 ODI World Cup. In these two games, Travis Head single-handedly took the game away from the Indian team, and this is not the case for only two games. May or may not be, but there is a force that drives Travis Head to destroy the Indian bowling line-up.
Travis Head has been a game-changer for Australia in all three formats against India. He has played ten test matches against India, scoring 715 runs at an average of 42.05, including a 163-run innings in the World Test Championship final in 2023. Overall, Head has played 27 Test matches in Australia, scoring 1922 runs at an impressive average of 50.57. He, like Rishabh Pant in the Indian camp, isn’t scared to face the opposition, and if the top order gets off to a solid start, Head can do the damage in the middle order, putting India under strain.
So it is pretty clear that the threat of Travis Head is real and severe as well for India. If the Indian team wants to start the BGT 2024-25 on a winning note, dismissing Travis early in the game is the only option.
How India Can Cope-up with the Threat of Travid Head?
Head has been the Australian team’s best batsman since rejoining them in 2021. Head has made the number 5 place his own, contributing to Australia’s Test victories, whether it’s the Ashes win in 2021-22 or the legendary WTC finale against India, where he hit a magnificent century and became a man of the match. Head has a strike rate of 78 and an average of 43 in Tests over the last three years.
The stats above are enough to show that Head enjoys taking the attack to the opposition, and in doing so, he gives chances to bowlers despite being settled down on the crease like Rishabh Pant.
According to Akash Chopra (former Indian Test cricketer), Travis Head plays high-risk cricket, which provides bowlers an early chance to dismiss him. Akash said this in his video where he was talking about ways to get Travis Head out. As per Akash’s video, Travis is a batsman who doesn’t use his feet and plays with his hands. In short, Ta is a hand-eye coordination player. Such players get cramped when the ball angles in, especially from the round-the-wicket angle, which exposes the gap between bat and pad because of the downswing angle of the bat, and this exposes the inside edge of the bat, creating chances of played on and the keeper’s catch; in fact, it brings short leg into play while defending the ball.
So, according to the video in which Akash is giving a game plan to dismiss Travis Head, Indian seamers go “round the wicket” ASAP after Head’s arrival to the crease and try to angle in the ball to expose that inside edge.
But this game plan is that fast bowlers can use to get rid of Head; what about spinners? Well, on this front, the Indian team does not have to worry about that much because Head has been a bunny of off-spinners, dismissed 13 times by right-arm off-spinners since returning to Test cricket three years ago. His average against right-arm off-spin is 33.77, which is lower than his average of almost 50 runs per dismissal against pace. Out of those 13 dismissals against off-spin, Travis Head has been dismissed three times by Ashwin in six innings.
Travis too knows about Ashwin’s threat, which he admits on a build show to BGT on Star Sports by saying, “He [Ashwin] is all over you all the time…It’s nice to try and play well against the best bowlers.”
So the trick to getting rid of Travis Head in Perth is to give pacers instructions to bowl round the wicket, angling in deliveries, or deploy Ashwin as soon as Head hits the crease. With these two game plans, India can easily cope-up with the danger of Travis Head.
