Travis Head stood tall at Day 1 of the World Test Championship 2023 final between India and Australia at the Kensington Oval on what turned out to be a bright and sunny day, contrary to what the Indian captain Rohit Sharma saw at the toss, smoking an unbeaten 146 off just 156 deliveries, as Australia ended the day at 327 for 3.
Head, along with Steve Smith (95*), smothered India bowlers for the majority of the day with an unbeaten partnership of 251 runs for the 4th wicket after Sharma won the toss and opted to field first. Sharma had said at the toss his decision was influenced by ‘the conditions and also the weather being overcast’.
But as the day went on, the clouds disappeared and Australia made merry with the Indian decision to field four pacers, and bench the No.1 ranked Test bowler R Ashwin, was made to look a bit pedestrian.
There were overcast conditions, to begin with as Mohammad Shami and Mohammad Siraj made the ball move with upright and wobbly seam, respectively, with Siraj getting rid of Australia’s best batter in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy – Usman Khawaja – for a ten-ball duck.
Khawaja, a good leaver of the new ball, just could not resist the over-the-wicket length ball that just seamed away after pitching taking a faint edge to wicketkeeper KS Bharat. That, unfortunately, was the end of India’s charge for the remainder of the session with David Warner and Marnus Labhuschagne steadying the ship with a stand of 69 runs.
Warner, who struggled at first got back in form with a breezy 43 off 60 balls, aided largely by India’s listless secondary pace attack of Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur, who failed to apply the pressure put on by Siraj and Shami in their respective first spells.
Even though Thakur got rid of Warner with an innocuous short-of-length delivery down the legside which Warner gloved to Bharat, the duo were not incisive enough to trouble Warner and Labhuschange. Labhuschange did survive two LBW appeals and DRS taken by the Indian team, but he looked largely unflustered in the first session.
At the end of the first session, Yadav had leaked runs at over 4.50 and Thakur over three.
Shami provided an early breakthrough in the second session in the form of Labhuschagne (26) with fuller delivery, but India’s ineffectiveness to control the run flow meant Smith and Head got a good start. Head at one point was striking over 120 initially, and it was only when Ravindra Jadeja came into the attack that Head curbed his attacking instincts. However, Indian bowlers looked listless as conditions started to favour the batters.
While fans, social media and the commentators all in unison argued the demerits of not having Ashwin in the playing XI, for India and Rohit Sharma, there is no turning back now.
On what he saw as a green wicket, Sharma went with seamers hoping they will exploit the conditions, but he would have soon realized they made a mistake in reading the pitch – very similar to how they misread the Southampton track for WTC 2021 final when New Zealand went in with four seamers and India with two spinners – Once bitten, twice shy.
By the third session, Indian bowlers were tired and Head and Smith put the pedal down and ransacked, 157 runs in the final session in just 34 overs.
Head becomes the first batter to hit a century in a WTC final when he top-edged a short one from Shami in no man’s land. Smith, at the other end, played deliveries as late as possible en route to another fifty and on the cusp of his 31st Test century.
For India, the economy rates sky-rocketed even though Shami, Siraj and Thakur had one wicket apiece to show for their efforts. It was a tough day at the office for the bowler, and going by the norm, the best day to bat on the Oval track is the 2nd day, Indian bowlers would be in for a tougher day on Day 2.
Brief Scores: Australia 327/3 (Travis Head 146*, Steve Smith 95*; Mohammad Siraj 1/67) vs India
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