Travis Head‘s love affair with the Indian bowling continued at the Gabba on Sunday, as he tonked the visitors with his second consecutive century to give a commanding look to Australia’s first-innings total in the second Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Brisbane.
After rain on day one, it was runs from Head (103*) and Steve Smith (65*) that flooded the Gabba with an unbroken 159-run partnership for the fourth wicket, which took Australia to 233 for 4 at tea. Just 13.2 overs were possible on the rain-hit day one, which saw the hosts scoring 28 for no loss.
But the second day belonged to Head, who followed up his match-winning 140 in Adelaide with another hundred in 116 balls, which included 13 fours, after Jasprit Bumrahs’ double strike early on Sunday morning sent openers Usman Khawaja (21) and Nathan McSweeney (9) back and Nitish Kumar Reddy dismissed Marnus Labuschagne (12).
An interesting stat about Head’s century is that it came after his three consecutive golden ducks at the Gabba, which has otherwise been a prolific venue for the left-handed batter, with knocks of 84, 24, 152 and 92 before his three first-ball dismissals.
Head’s purple patch also rubbed onto Smith, who had been desperately looking for runs coming into this Test match. But it was Head who understandably played the role of the aggressor, with Smith taking 128 balls to get to his fifty.
Talking about Head vs India, it was his third century in last seven Test innings against Rohit Sharma’s team, which read 90, 163, 18, 11, 89, 140, 103*.
The most telling of those knocks came in the World Test Championship final last year, when his 163 took the game away from India and led to Australia’s win. A few months later, he broke Indian hearts in white-ball cricket with his match-winning ton in the ODI World Cup final.
