New Delhi (Nilesh Tiwari), December 15: On Day 2 of the ongoing Brisbane, Travis Head once again hammered a century, continuing his raging run of form against his ‘favourite’ team, making Indian bowlers look foolish on the pitch. In the third test of the five-Test series, Head and Steve Smith pushed Australia ahead with a fantastic 241-run combination that exhausted the Indian bowlers.
India started the second day at the Gabba on a high note by mounting pressure on Australia, who were at 75/3, after a rain-plagued first day. But with the ball being 33.3 overs old and the sun out, the Indian bowlers could not sustain the pressure that let Head and Smith cool down. With a 241-run partnership, the Australian pair continued to torture the Indian bowlers. It is interesting to note that in Test cricket, the last time that a pair of Australians made 200 runs together was against the Indian team in the 2023 ICC World Test Championship final, in which they inflicted a 285-run partnership on them.
“That being said, I guess we can first claim that Head is doing reasonably okay.”. At the post-day presser, bowling coach Morne Morkel told reporters, “I think we need to get better at that one area. When a guy is playing like that, in that fashion, back-to-back innings, we can only give that a lot of credit. However, if you look at it from overs 50 to 80, even in the last game, right now, that’s where we sort of fall short, leaking a little bit.”
We were really good when we got the ball first thing this morning, at 3 for 70. If you put two more on the scoreboard, you’re right back in the game. However, don’t discount the two elite athletes. We know Steve Smith, but he can also bat and score runs, so they put up a partnership on the board and put pressure on us with a softer ball.”. As a result, we should surely focus on this area. Perhaps, game plans we have further into the innings. But are we employing a softer ball from both ends to carry that out? That’s what we need to consider.”
For a long time now, Head has been India’s nemesis. He scored a half-century in the T20 World Cup, a century in the WTC final, and a tonne in the 2023 ODI World Cup final. After thrashing the Indian bowlers all over the park.
Left-handed batsman Head scores his second successive century at the Gabba. He had already made a hundred at the Adelaide Oval, his own ground, in the second Test. Despite having few vulnerabilities to bat, Head has struggled against the short ball, especially around the third or fourth stump and also against the deliveries which swing away from him down the channel. But the Indian pacers did not often bowl in the channel or challenge him with bouncers. Head reached a sizzling 152 by continuing to cut, drive, flip, and punish the Indian bowlers.
The statistics tell the tale of the host broadcasters. Jasprit Bumrah was the only bowler against Head who allowed a false shot percentage of 20.5 that made him lose 33 runs. Head scored 19 runs and played 14.8% incorrect shots against Akash Deep. But to the batsman, Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja were the two most inconsistent bowlers and let up 34 and 44 runs while managing just 14.5% and 8.6% of wrong shots, respectively.
Morkel said: “We felt he played it pretty well in Adelaide when we came around, but as an individual bowler you still need to back your strength. Our plan going into this game was to bowl a little bit more over the wicket, just to bowl a straighter line.” I think these conditions, what the ball is doing, and what the wicket is doing should all be summarised. We did get some bounce throughout the day, so yes, the margins to him are very slim.
Perhaps the best way to bring a little bit of control in the game is that lowering the scoring rate since you know he will be aggressive. I said from over 50 with that softer ball, that is where we are leaking, and the phase we need to improve on. That was going on but when Head came into the game, it was like they were bowling on another wicket.
Despite having access to a wealth of data and statistics, it was unexpected that the Indian bowlers failed to come up with a clear strategy to get Head out of the game early. Even though the bowlers appeared to be at a loss, it was also on to captain Rohit Sharma, bowling coach Morkel, and the coaching staff led by Gautam Gambhir to devise a plan to get Head out.
There was silent happiness as Bumrah finally dislodged him. The superstar Indian pacer threw his arms up in the air, letting out a sigh of relief. However, the damage had already been done.
Australia completed Day 2 on 405/7. Rain may salvage the Indian team, but still the hosts remain favourites to win the Gabba Test. East Brisbane shows 40-50% probability of precipitation in the next three days.
