Hindsight is a powerful weapon and the Australian team gifted their critics enough ammunition to fire with long before they were thrashed by India in Nagpur. Prior to the series, pitch dominated the conversations but following the first Test, it’s Australia’s abject display with the bat which has taken over.
And while their performance is being dissected, a particular selection call prior to the Test is sticking out like a sore thumb. Travis Head was Australia’s most in-form batter coming into the Border-Gavaskar Trophy but they dropped him for the series opener and instead trusted Matt Renshaw who had just played his first Test in January in nearly five years.
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The message was clear: While Head may have been in impressive form, Australia didn’t have enough faith in him to man their middle-order on the challenging Indian pitches.
Former Australia captain Mark Taylor says the selection call can have negative impact on Head’s mindset even if he feels that the team will have him back in the eleven for the second Test.
“I dare say they’ll go back to him now for the next Test, but I worry about the psychological damage that may have been done to Travis Head because what the selectors have told him is that they don’t have great faith in him on those sorts of pitches,” Taylor told Channel Nine.
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For the record, Head has an excellent record in Test cricket when playing at home where he averages 57.40. However, that average drops down to 23.76 in 11 Tests when playing away from home.
The 29-year-old is yet to play a Test in India though.
“That’s not what you need when you’re going in to bat in places like India. He’s 29 years old and he’s potentially the future of our middle order and the only way he’s going to get better is if he plays in India. He still hasn’t played a Test match in India yet, so that’s where it surprises me,” Taylor said.
However, Taylor is positive Australia can still bounce back despite the thrashing in Nagpur.
“It’s not impossible. I can think back to 25 years ago to my last couple of Test matches in India. We got beaten in Kolkata by an innings and 220-odd runs. In the fourth (third) Test of that series, we turned it around and won by eight wickets, so you can do it,” he said.
When Australia captain Pat Cummins was asked about the decision to not pick Head for the series opener, he defended the call. “We were confident it was our best XI this week. We know the quality Trav is. He’s a huge part of this team but we were confident in the 11 guys out there. He’s been really good around the group. He’s been working really hard on his game like he always does,” he said.
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