After hitting an unbroken hundred on the opening day of the World Test Championship final against India on Wednesday, Travis Head stated that playing alongside Australia ace Steve Smith helped him to “sneak under the radar.” Head was commenting on how Head was able to “sneak under the radar” by batting alongside Smith.
During his Test career, Smith had amassed 8,792 runs, including 30 hundreds, making him one of the most accomplished batsmen of his generation. Smith has been considered a valuable wicket for a long time.
At The Oval, the former captain of Australia demonstrated once more his value by scoring an undefeated 95 runs, but it was Head who led the way by scoring a sparkling 146 runs without being dismissed.
When Head stepped out to bat for Australia, they were 76-3 when they achieved their final score of 327-3 when they called it a day.
Head, speaking after an unbroken stand of 251 with Smith, stated, “Whenever I bat with him I always feel like I’m in the shadows, that you can sneak under the radar and go about your business because he draws so much attention.” Smith followed Head’s statement by saying, “It’s been a pleasure to bat with you.”
“Despite the fact that we are polar opposites, we complement each other very well as a team.”
The runs scored by Head came from only 156 balls, with 22 fours and one six among them.
His sixth Test century was also his first outside of Australia, which is a positive indication in front of a five-match Ashes series that will begin at Edgbaston the following week in England.
“It’s a nice feather in the cap, and I’ll look back in the future on a nice little moment,” Head continued. “It’s a nice accomplishment.”
when suffering defeat to New Zealand in the first World T20 Championship showpiece event in 2021, India, who were competing in their second WTC final, got off to a strong start when their captain Rohit Sharma won the toss.
They got Usman Khawaja out for a duck while Mohammed Siraj was bowling for them, which brought the score to 2-1 for Australia, but as the day dragged on, their hold on the game weakened due to a string of errant deliveries.
According to India’s bowling coach, Paras Mhambrey, “I think we really bowled in the right areas” during the opening 12 to 15 overs of the game.
“However, after a while, I got the impression that we weren’t particularly disciplined with regard to our bowling.”
Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s great off-spinner and the top-ranked Test bowler in the world, was not included in the Indian team’s squad. This is similar to what India did two years ago, when they defeated England by 157 runs in their last match at The Oval.
Mhambrey stated, “It’s always a very difficult decision to drop a champion bowler like that,” which is an understatement.
“But looking at the conditions when we woke up in the morning, I thought having the additional seamer would most definitely be beneficial.”