Galle: Travis Head has flagged a return to the middle order for the World Test Championship final at Lord’s and expects Sam Konstas to regain his opening berth alongside Usman Khawaja for the showdown with South Africa.
The Australians are expecting a fresh Galle pitch to be more helpful to spinners from ball one of the second Test, after Head’s summary attack on the home side’s tweakers put the tourists in the ascendancy inside the first hour of the series.
Travis Head.Credit: Getty
Sri Lanka will reportedly lose one of their most seasoned players after this match, with former captain Dimuth Karunaratne set to retire. The second Test will be Karunaratne’s 100th for Sri Lanka, but a pair of brief innings in the first game suggested that the 36-year-old’s powers are on the wane.
Head’s role in Sri Lanka, the inclusion of debutant Josh Inglis and the omission of Konstas, has been the source of much debate at home, but the vice-captain and newly crowned Allan Border medallist said that he could see the 19-year-old walking out to bat against the Proteas at Lord’s in June.
Konstas, winner of the Bradman young cricketer of the year, was quarantined from the team with illness for most of the first Test, but returned to training with a long centre wicket net session on Tuesday.
“Most likely I’ll go back into the middle order and Sam would open, but I’m glad I’m not a selector,” Head said as the Australians resumed training ahead of Thursday’s second Test. “Josh has had an amazing start, guys are playing well, Greeny’s [Cameron Green] going to be fit.
“So it’s going to be hard to fit in and I think that’s what we want. We want an Australian cricket team that’s tough to get in, where everyone’s pushing for spots. That’s where the pressure comes, trying to hold your spot every Test knowing there’s people behind you.
“So we’re in a strong position. It’s better having seven or eight batters talked about than three or four.”
Head reiterated that he is unlikely to ever open the batting in Test matches where conditions favour pace. Captain Pat Cummins and head coach Andrew McDonald believe his best role is to counter-attack from No.5, as he did brilliantly against India and Jasprit Bumrah over the home summer.
“That’s probably unlikely with where we’ve gone,” he said. “I’ve had conversations with Ron, Pat, they know where I stand that I’ll do anything they require. But I’m in the position they want me to be in.
“As long as I keep being consistent in that position and trying to do as well as I can, that’s great, but it’s probably unlikely that I would [open] in Australia with where we’ve been in the last two years. It feels like the middle order is the spot in Australia for me.”
Sam Konstas speaks with batting coach Michael Di Venuto during an Australia nets session at Galle.Credit: Getty Images
Sri Lanka’s coach Sanath Jayasuriya pointed out after the first Test that the surface did not start to spin and dust up like a traditional Galle pitch until day three, and the baking treatment being given to the second Test pitch suggests it will be far drier this time – aided by much finer weather with barely a cloud in the sky this week.
In 2022, the pitch for the first Test here was extremely dry on a spinners’ length from ball one. Infamously, Nathan Lyon’s first ball popped off the surface and struck wicketkeeper Alex Carey in the helmet. Head emphasised that this one looked a little less spin friendly, but still had two more days of sunshine.
“You could play on it right now and you’d be happy,” Head said. “You’ve got to take it for face value, look at it again tomorrow and then the next morning. We’ve still got two days so I guess anything could play out in these conditions. The sun’s out now, so it’s baking at the moment.
“It looks like it will spin earlier but it looks at the moment like the first couple of days will be good for batting and then it will spin. Like we’ve said previously in the last couple of weeks, it’s just being able to adapt [to] that moment, that shift.
“What we’ve seen in the first Test was probably that day three moment where it shifted to heavy spin and we were able to capture the moments. It’s whether we can weigh up when that shift comes and be able to be ready and adapt to that. It looks like it’ll take spin early.”
