Australia’s captain Pat Cummins, (center), Travis Head, (left), and Sam Konstas celebrates the wicket of India’s Rishabh Pant during play on the last day of the fourth cricket test between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia. (AP)
When Travis Head came on to bowl with India placed well to draw the Boxing Day Test, it raised eyebrows. But the move was totally vindicated when Head dismissed Rishabh Pant and though it was his celebration of that wicket that created plenty of attention, the move to hand the ball to Head may have well been down to Australia not wanting to repeat their past mistake.
With South Africa already confirming their World Test Championship final spot, the race is now between Australia, India and Sri Lanka with the former best placed to book a second-successive final. And with over-rate being a cause of concern for Australia – they missed out on the 2021 WTC final because they were penalised for slow over-rate – Australia captain Pat Cummins has admitted it was one of the reasons for bringing on Head.
Head and Lyon sped through with their overs in the final session before the Test changed on its head following the dismissal of Pant. “He’s got a bit of a Midas touch,” Cummins said of Head’s bowling at the presentation. “I’ll give the coach credit for that one [bringing him on]. Also, we were a bit behind on the over rate, so we thought, get Trav in there, [he] might get a breakthrough and help us out with some overs,” he added.
Head then went on to explain. “I got told I was bowling [at tea], wasn’t too pleased about things. We are a pretty relaxed group, [we] don’t change too much, we knew what we had to do. Pat and Ronnie [head coach Andrew McDonald] come up with the plans, had a chat and we were able to go out and execute it,” Head said.
With regards to Pant’s dismissal, Head joked, “Bowl a rank [long hop] and have everyone on the fence. I just threw them down there, see what happens and it turned our way.”
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