The Australian cricket team has been faring quite well under their newly appointed skipper Pat Cummins. Cummins made a spectacular captaincy debut against England in the 2021-22 Ashes series on their home turf. Australia hammered the Joe Root-led English side 4-0 which caused lots of tremors in the English cricket setup. After this particular series, Australia could not replicate this kind of dominant performance in red-ball cricket while they toured both Pakistan and Sri Lanka earlier this year. The Aussie batsmen had loads of challenges while facing sping bowling on the turning Asian pitches. What raised many eyeballs was their debacle in a single session when they were taking on Sri Lanka in the second Test match at Galle.
Travis Head poses ahead of a net session in Adelaide
Amongst the likes of David Warner, Usman Khwaja, Marnus Labuschagne, and Steven Smith, it was Travis Head who seemed to struggle endlessly against spin bowling. Head who was the highest run-getter with 357 in the 2021-22 Ashes series now finds himself in a rough spot. He was awarded the 'Player of the Series' when England toured Australia for the Ashes Test matches, but after that, he failed to contribute to the team's success. The Aussie batsman just managed to score 91 odd runs at an average of 15.17 in his recent tours to Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Australia legend and World Cup-winning skipper Allan Border has now opened up on how Head can improve and tackle spin bowling better. With Australia scheduled to tour India for the Border-Gavaskar trophy, the Aussie batsmen must put their technique in place to tackle spin better feels Border.
Travis Head celebrates his century in the first Ashes Test match
"Head has got to sit down and work out a method better than it’s going at the moment, that's for sure. I have talked to him a little bit about batting on spinning wickets. He’s got to learn how to sweep and sweep well and he's got to use his feet, people don't seem to be prepared to go down the track and defend. We are going to sub-continent a lot, so if he wants to be in the frame, he needs to learn how to play the turning ball", said the Aussie legend.
Allan Border further cited the example of Matthew Hayden who scored 549 runs, including two hundreds and a double hundred on Indian tracks in 2001, and said Head needs to put in a lot of work against spin if wants to be equally successful in spinning conditions as he everywhere else around the globe.
(Inputs from PTI)
