Andrew McDonald admits the side is open to Travis Head opening again

PL reports the side has been open to a reactive shuffling of the batting order for some time

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The news isn’t all bad for Usman Khawaja, but there are no guarantees the veteran, who is also facing a fitness test, will play in Brisbane.

Australia will, at the very least, retain the option to adjust the order and open with Travis Head in the second innings of Test matches, but nobody is ruling out making a permanent move.

Andrew McDonald admitted on Wednesday morning that there has been talk for some time about being more flexible with the batting order.

Head’s match-winning performance, which the coach labelled historic, has dropped a rock into the pond of cricket convention and challenged a selection panel that has favoured a conservative approach – and faith in its veterans – but has made tough calls at different points.

Among these big calls was leaving Nathan Lyon out of the third Test in the Caribbean.

Australia is not closing the door on the option of doing that again to the off-spinner who only bowled two overs in the first Test. It is, however, unlikely, with McDonald pointing out that the champion slow bowler has traditionally shouldered a lot of the work in day-night Tests when the pink ball goes soft.

McDonald spoke from the porch of his Geelong home on what should have been the fourth day of the first Test.

The manner in which Head, on his way to a 69-ball century, knocked the England new ball attack, which has proved so difficult to face with the new ball 24 hours before, off its line, has offered an alternative route for the rest of the series.

“We’ve got a lot to consider, batting models are always debated heavily, over a period of time, middle order players haven’t been the popular ones to open the batting. We’ll discuss and work through what it looks like. I think it gave us a little bit of a lens potentially to the future in terms of adjusting batting orders in the second innings, which is something that we have discussed; to be able to be able to, you know, put different people in different positions with the scenario that was presented.”

“So this one happened, probably through a bit more chance, and obviously the unfortunate injury to Usman Khawaja, but I think it really probably opens up that discussion more than anything else.”