Head Ache

GH watches India suffer one

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.