Travis Head had a disappointing outing in Qualifier 1 of the Indian Premier League against Kolkata Knight Riders.
The swashbuckling opener was cleaned up by Mitchell Starc for a golden duck and as the evening progressed at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Tuesday, Head looked sloppy on the field, also conceding 22 runs in the final over as the Knight Riders romped home.
But Sunrisers’ assistant coach Simon Helmot feels that Head will be back ‘bigger and better’ for the second qualifier at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday.
“There were two heavyweight fighters. Travis Head likes to score quickly and be aggressive, and Starc is a really aggressive bowler and at times, there is only one winner and we saw the winner tonight,” Helmot said with a smile.
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“But plenty of times as we have seen over the season, Travis has been on top of the bowlers, so we want him to continue to play in his positive and aggressive way. Him and Abhi (Abhishek Sharma) have been a tremendous partnership up to the top for us. Onwards and upwards, we don’t concern ourselves about the dismissals, obviously, Travis wants to score runs and I know that he will be back bigger and better on the 24 th,” he added.
Head has been in phenomenal form this season, amassing 533 runs in 13 games at a strike rate of 199.63. However, he struggled in the last couple of games.
As his team gears up for a do-or-die clash at the Chepauk - against the winner of the Eliminator between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Rajasthan Royals - the expectations will be high from Head.
Can he handle the pressure and provide a head start to SRH? Time will tell.
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