Australian selectors considered the merits of gambling on Travis Head as an opening batsman for this series, and revisiting the radical plan might be his only avenue back in India.
Australia’s stunning decision to axe Head for the first Test has been put under a searing microscope, particularly given the left-hander preferred over him, Matthew Renshaw, was out for a golden duck and has now suffered a knee injury.
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Renshaw passed a fitness test after scans and returned to the field in the middle session on day two, but even if he was to be ruled out of the second Test, Head might struggle to get his place back in the middle-order with all-rounder Cameron Green a certain inclusion if fit.
Therefore Head’s main chance of a reprieve might be if in the back end of this series, circumstances prompt selectors to consider reinventing him as a swashbuckling opener.
News Corp revealed back in December that selectors had not ruled out Head as an option at the top of the order, specifically in India, where he could attack from the get-go and not worry about getting bogged down in defending against the spinners.
National Selector George Bailey hinted after the Brisbane Test, when Head made a matchwinning 92 on a treacherous Gabba deck, that Australia might be willing to think outside the square with the star left-hander in India.
“Pat (captain Pat Cummins) is driving this team (to) being very, very adaptable,” Bailey said back in December.
“So I think there’s opportunities for players in the XI to play different roles at different times as well.
“So whether that’s the same for Travis in subcontinent tours. (We’ll) wait and see.”
It’s difficult to see selectors making any rash moves on veteran openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja mid-series.
When the veteran pair finished the home summer with big hundreds, it made the Head as opener plan unlikely.
But Fox Cricket expert and former Australian great Brad Haddin believes moving Head up the order might have been a wiser call than dropping him when he’d been arguably the Test team’s No. 1 batsman during the summer.
“You can understand why they’ve left him out. They don’t trust him the way he starts against spin,” Haddin said.
“But the one thing they could have done is put him up the order to take the game on. Because if he’s set and spin comes on then he’s a much different player.”
Win, lose or draw in Nagpur it would be unlikely for selectors to make further changes unless forced by injury or Green returning from injury.
Coach Andrew McDonald and Tony Dodemaide are the selectors on duty in India.
But depending on how the series progresses, perhaps consideration might be given to moving Khawaja or Warner down the order to accommodate an attacking weapon like Head at the top.
At age 36, Warner and Khawaja may have likely entered their last year in Test cricket, but it would be unusual for players of their experience and class to be shifted out of the line-up mid-series.
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Test great Ricky Ponting defended selectors over the controversial call to drop Head.
“The more I thought about it, the fact that they played Matt Renshaw in Sydney to me meant they probably had other plans in mind for him,” Ponting said on the ICC Review Podcast.
“Obviously, the most immediate plan was for him to bat in the middle order for Australia in this Test series against India.
“And when you look at that, if they’re going to keep him in, they couldn’t really afford to keep Travis Head in either because then they would have five left-handers in their top seven.”
Other Test greats including Steve Waugh, Michael Clarke, Matthew Hayden and Kerry O’Keeffe have questioned the decision to dispense with Head without even allowing him a chance to show his wares in India.
