Michael Hussey Explains Reason Behind Travis Head’s Omission For India Tour
Jan 13, 2019 at 4:14 PM
Mr. Cricket, Michael Hussey has said Travis Head is the unluckiest player to have missed the bus for the India Test series to be played in month of February-March.
“I think the other thing that might have helped (Maxwell) is being a right-hander, as opposed to Travis Head, who I thought was right in contention as well,” Hussey told cricket.com.au.
Hussey recognised the prowess of Indian bowling attack against the left-handed batsmen and labelled it the reason behind Head not been selected for the series.
It should be noted that 18 out of 28 Ashwin’s wickets against England were of left-handers. Four years back against Australia, a total of 18 left-handed batsmen fell to Ashwin.
“Ashwin is going to be such a key player for India and he’s got a great record against left-handers. So maybe that was something the selectors were thinking about as well.
“(Head has) done well at a one-day international level for Australia so I thought it’d be a nice, seamless progression for him to come into the Test team. I feel like he’s pretty unlucky.
“(Maxwell) hasn’t really set the world on fire from Victoria this season.
“Ideally, you don’t want to be picking on potential. You want to be picking on performances on the board.
“But he’s such a great package and offers the team a lot of balance. So when he’s playing at his best and contributing, he’s a match-winner with the bat, he can help out with the ball and he’s obviously a gun in the field.
“He hasn’t quite got the runs on the board that many people think he needed,” Hussey said.
The Test series between India and Australia will start from February 23 with the first Test to be played at Pune. The last time Australia toured the country, they were whitewashed by the hosts 4-0. The ‘Homework Gate’ during the series added to their woes as four of the Australia players were dropped from the squad following this.