Travis Head was Usman Khawaja’s choice to open the Border Gavaskar series between Australia and India. Steve Smith should bat at No. 4 in Khawaja’s opinion.
Travis Head has been selected by Australia’s Test opener Usman Khawaja to open with him in the forthcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy series. After more than a decade of opening across formats, David Warner’s retirement from international cricket left a void that appeared difficult to fill. Steve Smith, the star batsman for Australia, raised his hands to take the opening Test position, but he was unable to make an impact in his few appearances at the top of the order. Khawaja preferred that Smith bat at No. 4 in Test matches against India. The opening batsman believed that Smith batting at number four would provide the home team the best opportunity to defeat India, who are a formidable team.
He’ll just most likely never say it,” this week’s opening chuckled. “So I’ll say it for him. “Although opening is a very significant position, I still believe that Steve Smith—arguably the best Test player of my generation—is in the side, and his best position has been number four. That seems like his best position to me. I believe that (Marnus) Labuschagne three, Smith four is the finest balance for our team. The most important factor in my opinion is “what’s best for the team.” Which order gives us the highest run total? And we scored a lot of runs when Davey Warner was on the team and Smudge batted at number four, Khawaja said to Fox Sports.
Against India, who should open?
In contrast to his overall average of 56.97, the former World No. 1 batsman, who assumed the top rank following David Warner’s retirement, has averaged 28.50 in four Test matches. Two against the West Indies and two against New Zealand, Steve Smith’s four Test matches as an opener in 2024 have yielded just one fifty-plus score.
We haven’t won as many games as we could have, but we have won them even with Smudge starting. Khawaja added, “And he’s almost unstoppable when things are going his way.”
Given Head’s current form and his boastful past versus India, Khawaja selected him to open the second Test match for Australia.
Is Travis Head able to return?
“In the end, the selectors will make that determination. However, I believe Travis Head would be the most appropriate if you had me open, Labuschagne three, Smith four. In one-day cricket, he’s clearly had a lot of success opening the batting, so, in the end, I think I’d go with him.
Head, who got 23 runs off of 23 balls in the first Twenty20 international match against England, was in top form. He also scored 30 runs off of an over bowled by Sam Curran. Because of his performances against India in the WTC 2023 final and the ODI World Cup, Head was also named Player of the Match.
