Travis Head came into this summer in no sort of form at all. He had averaged 22 in his last nine Tests. He made 30 and 10 in a Shield match before a six-week paternity leave that precluded his appearance in Australia’s series against Pakistan.
Perversely, this might be when Head is at his most dangerous. He can look awful - until he doesn’t. He answers Gertrude’s impatient demand in Hamlet for more matter and less art. He is like your classic grip-it and rip-it golfer, who walks to the tee in mid-conversation, and carves it down the middle. He was Australia’s most convincing batter in a losing cause in Perth; today, in a third hometown hundred, he turned Australia’s position of strength into one of dominance. At stumps, India still trailed by twenty-nine runs, with the tail to come.
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