Usman Khawaja, the only incumbent, has made his own view clear. “I feel like Travis Head might be best suited,” he said last week. “He’s obviously been very successful opening the batting in one-day cricket… The confidence transfers over. When you’re seeing the ball well, scoring lots of runs and not much is going through your head, it’s a great place to be.”
Perhaps that is to underplay the difference between the formats. Head was facing two white balls on Thursday night rather than one red one, at a ground with boundaries that are barely half as big as those at Australia’s home grounds. There are no fielding restrictions in a Test match, and India’s attack is a clear upgrade on the one England put out in Nottingham.
Head faced two balls early in his innings from Jofra Archer which were borderline unplayable, angling in from around the wicket then shaping away late off the seam to beat the bat. He was also dropped on 6, with Brydon Carse 20 yards off the backward point boundary and failing to cling onto an acrobatic effort as he leapt back over his head.
But Head has a remarkable ability to put the last ball out of his mind, as he demonstrated with the series of plays-and-misses against Jasprit Bumrah in Ahmedabad which still play on the minds of Indian supporters. At Trent Bridge, he cruised to a run-a-ball half-century and gradually accelerated towards the finish line, reaching a 92-ball hundred and then a 123-ball 150.
“It was difficult at the start,” Head said. “Jof’s way too good for me, so I’ve experienced it a few times. I even thought in the T20s, the couple of overs I faced him in Southampton, he’s an exceptionally good bowler. You’ve got to take the good with the bad… there wasn’t much in those first couple of overs, so I just tried to back my technique and tried to stay out there.”
England have found Head incredibly difficult to close down over the past 10 days: his 90 runs in the T20I series came off just 37 balls, and he has been merciless against any width. It is his unorthodox technique which presents the challenge: “Sometimes ‘width’ is even middle-and-off stump for him, because he creates that room so well,” Marcus Trescothick, England’s coach, explained.
Head has gone through phases of looking vulnerable to the short ball, and England hardly used the bouncer against him on Thursday night: “We’re trying desperately,” Trescothick said. “Eventually, the worm will turn.” If he were to open in Tests, there is no doubt that India would bombard him with short balls at some stage – particularly with no fielding restrictions to worry about.
The biggest potential obstacle is Head himself. He has previously distanced himself from the role, suggesting that he should only be considered to open in the subcontinent – having done so five times in India at the start of last year – and was cagey when asked about the prospect of shifting up the order in the aftermath of Australia’s win in Nottingham.
“Yes,” he said, when asked if he was aware of the speculation in the media at home. “Keep the chatter: it makes it interesting.” After spending three hours on the attack, he played with a dead bat when asked if his stance had shifted since he appeared to rule himself out of contention: “I’m not going to dive into that. I’ll just let that play out.”
Head gave nothing away, on or off the pitch. But as Australia look to find an opening partner for Head in white-ball cricket who can replicate David Warner’s output, there is a growing sense that Head himself could have the same impact as Warner across formats. Whatever decision Australia’s selectors make, it could define their home summer.
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98
