India suffered a thumping nine-wicket loss at the hands of Australia in the third Test of the four-match Border-Gavaskasr Trophy in Indore.
Travis Head, along with Marnus Labuschagne, helped Australia wrap up the game n the morning of day three. Opening for Australia in absence of an injured David Warner, Head came into his own in the second innings chase of 76 with an unbeaten 49 to give the visitors a memorable victory in 18.5 overs.
His stay at the crease was resolute and the batter looked a figure of astute concentration, even though the Indian fielders in around his bat tried to get disturb him.
One such occasion was that in the sixth over of Australia’s chase, as Head was readying to face Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Iyer, stationed at short fine leg, said, “Iska ek pair Chandigarh mein, dusra Haryana mein (His one leg is in Chandigarh and other in Haryana)”.
Head, did not understand what was being said to him and continued to bat.
Watch the incident here -
pic.twitter.com/hAIUxKaEtQ— The Game Changer (@TheGame_26) March 4, 2023
After leading his country to victory, Head said he is taking it slow.
“Taking one step at a time. As cliched as it may sound, one ball at a time. Nice to contribute. Not everything goes your way. Just wanted to make sure when the chance comes I was ready enough to take it. Thinking was to execute as well as we can. Did a fantastic job to come back from the first two Tests. We knew there was going to be good balls, as well as opportunities to score runs. Once we got in, it was trying to make the most of the opportunity. Difficult when you’re facing one of the best bowlers in the world," Head said after the game.
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Former Australia captain Mark Taylor also praised Head for spearheading the charge for the visitors, pointing out that the left-hander put pressure on the bowler which worked very well.
“Australia had to be a little bit proactive, but as we saw in the second Test when they decided to reverse sweep and sweep everything, being proactive doesn’t mean being rash. It needed someone to push the button and say ‘I’ve got to put the pressure back on the bowler’."
“That was the moment Travis Head thought, well I’m going to go now, I’m going to go try and eat into this deficit quickly and put the pressure on the bowler, and it worked brilliantly," Taylor was quoted as saying by Wide World of Sports.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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