Ricky Ponting, a former Australian captain, compared Travis Head to Adam Gilchrist, a former keeper-batter, in light of the former’s performance on the opening day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
The Tasmanian thinks Head is scoring more quickly than Gilchrist, who averaged 81 points per game in 96 Tests.
After the first day of the WTC final match against India at the Kennington Oval, Head was still unbeaten at 146. Following Marnus Labuschagne’s dismissal, the left-hander stepped in and started attacking the opposition with the first ball. Head took 60 pitches to get to his fifty and 106 pitches to reach his hundred.
Ricky Ponting compares Travis Head to a former great and says that Travis Head is currently scoring more quickly than Gilly probably ever did.
Ponting stated to ICC that Head’s WTC strike rate of 81 speaks volumes about his skills. The World Cup-winning captain of Australia thought the southpaw’s capacity for applying pressure to bowlers was impressive.
(Like Gilchrist), he most likely is.
In fact, he is likely scoring more quickly now than Gilly ever did. He claimed that no other player in the world with more than 500 runs scored has a higher strike rate than 81 through this World Test Championship qualification period.
He continued, “His last two years have been quite remarkable. His confidence is growing with each game, his strike-rate keeps rising, he hits boundaries early in his innings which puts pressure back on the bowlers which is what you want from your middle order players.“
In addition, Head performed admirably when David Warner’s injury forced him to open the innings during the India tour earlier this year. In three Test matches, the South Australian scored 235 runs while age 47.
Ricky Ponting bemoans the strategy used by Indian bowlers, saying “No use trying to overattack him.”
While Ricky Ponting further acknowledged that the Indian bowlers made mistakes with their lengths, he still predicted that they would make amends in the second innings.
The 168-Test veteran continued: “I believe that you must perform flawlessly for him when he first enters. It is useless to try to overattack him because if you bowl any poor balls, he will dismiss them. Although they will undoubtedly make adjustments in the second innings based on how they bowled to him in the first, they will undoubtedly learn from their mistakes. However, sometimes it will be too late. “
As Australia reached an impressive 327-3 by stumps, Head and Smith put together an unbroken 251-run stand.
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