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Travis Head’s first overseas Test century, and a sterling supporting hand from Steve Smith, has steered Australia to a commanding position at stumps on Day 1 of the World Test Championship final against India.
Head’s latest dynamic ton, brought up off 106 balls and featuring 14 fours and a six, helped rescue Australia from a precarious 3/76 shortly after lunch, a 251-run stand with Smith seeing the team to stumps at The Oval in total control at 3/327.
Smith’s anchoring role proved the perfect foil for the South Australian’s sublime strokeplay, the champion continuing his love affair with English conditions to reach stumps unbeaten on 95, and send an ominous warning to England’s bowling attack with the Ashes looming large.
Head, too, will begin to give the England brains trust headaches if he can keep his spectacular form going for the next few months; more than anyone else in Australia’s line-up, he looms as the option to fight the hosts’ famously aggressive batting style, which has earned the moniker ‘BazBall’ named after head coach Brendon McCullum, with fire.
>> WATCH: Titanic Trav! All the highlights from Head’s latest spectacular century
Speaking at stumps, Head was quick to praise Smith’s influence on his freewheeling innings.
“I always love batting with Steve – I’ve always said that I feel like I go under the radar because there’s so many plans or unique thoughts that have to go into bowling to him,” he said.
“It feels like I’m doing that to him, and I feel like I can get in behind him. When he’s in that sort of form and moving the way he has in the last week… you know you’re not going to lose him at the other end, and you can build a nice partnership.”
Travis Head celebrates a century. (Photo by Alex Davidson-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
Usman Khawaja (0) was the only Australian to truly fail after Indian captain Rohit Sharma’s bold call to bowl first after winning the toss backfired, though David Warner (43) and Marnus Labuschagne (26) would have watched Smith and Labuschagne’s partnership ruefully, having squandered excellent starts and having weathered the day’s most dangerous bowling.
Not only will Sharma and co. need to bat last on a wicket likely to exhibit wear and tear over the next four days, but will likely be facing a hefty first-innings total, with wunderkind Cameron Green, wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey and a strong tail end still to come for Australia.
But with Head on 146 at stumps and eyeing his previous Test best of 175 when play resumes on Day 2, plus Smith just five runs away from a 32nd century of his own, it will be all they can do to simply break the current stand.
He is a much more accomplished player than the one who was dropped during the 2019 Ashes.
“Technically I’ve made those changes, not just for England, but all around,” Head said.
“There are certain parts of your game you adapt to each conditions you go to. That’s the same going anywhere.
“But the foundations I have set with my technique have definitely changed a lot since 2019. I felt like coming here I was in a better place.”
Finishing five overs behind the required 90 overs mark at stumps, looming trouble with the match referee would only add to India’s many woes; as will heavy criticism over the bold call to omit veteran spinner and top-ranked ICC Test bowler Ravichandran Ashwin in favour of four fast bowlers.
The first surprise of Day 1 was swung by India when Sharma opted to unleash his pace attack on the Australian batters, confident enough in the conditions to leave Ashwin out.
“It’s always a very difficult decision to drop a champion bowler like that,” conceded Paras Mhambrey, India’s former Test seamer who’s now their bowling coach.
“But looking at the (cool) conditions in the morning, I thought having the additional seamer would definitely be beneficial – and it also has worked in the past.
“If you look at the earlier games that we played – the last Test match we went in with four seamers, which really did well.
“The seamers have done well out here for us but you can always look at the hindsight, saying additional spinner would have been a different.”
But while Khawaja would last just 10 balls before feathering Mohammed Siraj behind for a duck to continue his unhappy record in England – he now averages just 18 across seven Tests there – the Aussie top order would show unexpected grit to grind through a challenging opening hour, with Marnus Labuschagne in particular withstanding a barrage of body blows.
Perhaps as surprising as Sharma’s call at the toss was the strokeplay of Warner; having looked a shell of the swashbuckling strokemaker he had been his peak for the better part of three years, the left-hander showed more than glimpses of the world-destroyer of old.
Crunching eight boundaries, four off one Umesh Yadav over to squander a miserly start from Siraj and Mohammed Shami, a sizeable score beckoned to all but rubber-stamp his claim to hold his spot throughout the upcoming Ashes series; only for him to perish in the most frustrating of circumstances, gloving Shardul Thakur down the leg side to a diving Bharat for an imposing yet unfulfilling 43.
Nevertheless, the score should at least ease fears of another series reminiscent of his infamous capitulation to Stuart Broad in the 2019 Ashes, with India targeting him from around the wicket with little of its previous effect.
For all their efforts in seeing off the new ball, Australia seemed in danger of a familiar collapse in English climes when Shami found a gap between Labuschagne’s bat and pad to demolish his off stump. 3/76, with Smith new to the crease and joined by Head, the day’s honours were evenly poised.
Head soon put paid to that. Perhaps only the great Adam Gilchrist has enjoyed a more prolonged period of success battnig at the strike rate the South Australian has since his coming-of-age century at the Gabba to start the 2021/22 Ashes.
Ruthless on anything wide of his off stump and unafraid to throw his hands at anything back of a length, the occasional loose shot over the slips cordon were drops in the ocean of a day-defining onslaught.
Racing to just 27 off 16 balls, Head’s attack had done the trick: Sharma, forced to retreat his field, could only watch as he and Smith moved at a more sedate, risk-free pace thereafter; Smith, whose average at the site of his first Test ton nearly a decade ago passed three figures mid-innings, more than content to play the steady hand.
Already set by the time India’s quicks began to target a perceived weakness against short deliveries at the body, Head still looked more than a little uncomfortable at the new line of attack, but a number of miscued shots fell safely on the leg side. A more fitting representation of making your own luck would be difficult to find.
As the dominance continued, attention turned to the absence of Ashwin, potentially overlooked due to his ineffectiveness in seam-bowling conditions in India’s World Test Championship final loss to New Zealand two years ago.
No one was more surprised at Ashwin’s absence than Australian champion Ricky Ponting; speaking on Seven, he questioned whether the green tint on the surface to begin play had overly influence the bold selection call.
“Whatever grass and moisture might have been there this morning, by Day 2 and Day 3, with a bit of sun on it, it’s going to bake nice and hard,” Ponting said of the pitch on Channel 7.
“When wickets bake hard here, especially at The Oval, they do tend to spin.
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“It just seemed to me that India picked an attack for Day 1 of this game only. I don’t think they looked far enough ahead.”
As it stood, Sharma seemed reluctant to turn to spin; despite a team-best economy rate of 3.42 per over at stumps, Ravindra Jadeja was only trusted with 14 overs, far fewer than the 20 and 19 granted to Shami and Siraj respectively.
With Australia 3/170 at tea, Head having breezed to 50 off just 60 balls, and the worst of the conditions behind them, the pair seemed on course to cash in on their hard work in the final session.
So it would prove: Smith bringing up a 144-ball half-century shortly before Head reached his next milestone: a 106-ball century, his sixth in Tests and quite possibly his best given the stakes.
A half-chance to Ajinkya Rahane at gully, who barely had time to react to a flying outside edge from Head, was India’s only opportunity to break the stand, and with the bowlers flagging by the end of a gruelling day, the Aussie pair were only too happy to cash in.
80 runs came in the 18 overs following the day’s final drinks break, Head marching indefatigably towards 150 while Smith finished things off in style with a gorgeous cover drive to perfectly symbolise the day just gone.
Tests are seldom won on Day 1 of a match; but it is possible to lose them, and Sharma will no doubt drift to sleep this evening fearing his side, long the world’s best in the longest format, have let another piece of ICC silverware slip through their fingers.
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