Travis Head: Will be nice to tell the grandkids that I faced Jasprit Bumrah

Australian left-hander lauds Jasprit Bumrah’s effectiveness, while praising his own team’s bench strength, which will be put to the test in the absence of injured paceman Josh Hazlewood.

Australia’s Travis Head (L) reacts on his dismissal as Jasprit Bumrah (C) celebrates his wicket with teammate Virat Kohli (R) on day four of the first Test between Australia and India. | Photo Credit: AFP

Under quirky Adelaide skies, sunny at one point, damp at another, Travis Head always feels at home. Back in his city in the lead-up to the second Test against India from Friday, Head is looking for clues from the past and equally gazing with hope into the immediate future.

In his previous two Tests at the Adelaide Oval, Head was adjudged as the ‘player-of-the-match.’ Against India, he held his own in the first Test in Perth while many would recall his hundred in the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup final that deflated Rohit Sharma’s men in Ahmedabad. Add to it India’s 36 during the 2020 Test here, and Head can surely lean on this rich vein of historical optimism.

But he is acutely conscious of India’s strengths, quadrupled by Jasprit Bumrah’s role as a spearhead. “I am lucky that I have faced him a few times, and I know what’s coming; I just need to start well. He is unique. Jasprit is probably going to go down as one of the greatest fast bowlers, and it will be nice to tell the grandkids that I faced him,” Head told the media here on Monday.

The 295-run loss in Perth has been dealt with, and Head elaborated: “We didn’t have a very good week, but we have got four more opportunities. The writing was on the wall pretty quickly in that Test, and we were pushing uphill.”

For the southpaw, the pink ball in the day and night Test here is no threat: “It’s still a game of cricket. It’s just a pink ball coming down; you face it in the same way, and you have got to react to it the same way.”

Admitting an injured Josh Hazlewood will be missed, Head was quick to praise the reserve strength: “Josh is a huge loss, but we have got some pretty good stocks in the sheds with Scott (Boland), Sean (Abbott), and (Brendan) Doggett.”