Travis Head and former Australia coach Justin Langer had a bitter feud with one another, former Australia captain Tim Paine has revealed. Langer and Head butted heads over the coach wanting to change the batter’s style of play.
Travis Head is typically a batsman who likes to bat aggressively rather than in the traditional style of Test cricket. His offensive style has brought him a lot of success in his career thus far.
Travis Head recently scored a match-winning 140 on his home field in Adelaide during the second Test against India. His counter-attacking knock came off just 141 balls, with 17 fours and 4 sixes.
It was a scorching innings from a man who has been in top form in all formats over the last several years. Head’s aggressive knock in Adelaide earned him a well-deserved Player of the Match award.
Travis Head and Justin Langer had a bitter fight: Tim Paine
Tim Paine discussed the time when Justin Langer was Australia’s head coach and Travis Head was still a young player on the team. Paine discussed the clear difference of opinion between Head and Langer.
Justin Langer, on the other hand, was skeptical of Travis Head’s style of batting’s long-term viability, as per Tim Paine.
“I don’t think either of them will mind me saying this, but I think he (Travis Head) and JL (Justin Langer) used to have a real difference of opinion. They were trying really hard for him to work on his defence and it wasn’t the way he wanted to go about it,” Paine said on SEN Radio.
Paine claimed that Justin Langer sought to improve Travis Head’s defensive game, and the latter had tried his hardest to impress his head coach since he was young. Head, on the other hand, achieved success by adopting an offensive rather than defensive approach.
“But he was a young Test player who was trying to impress and trying to stay in the team, so he was trying to please a bit of everyone. I think that’s been the major shift in his output because he is sticking true to the way he wants to play,” he added.
Tim Paine says Travis Head’s form with the bat will fluctuate
Tim Paine also remarked during the meeting that Travis Head will go through a slump at some point, but he will not abandon his aggressive batting style. He added that Head is now having the best time of his career.
“At times he’s going to fail and at times he’s gonna have lean patches, but he’s going to be super aggressive, he’s going to play his shots and he’s going to try and be a match-winner and we’re just seeing him blossom at the moment in all formats of the game,” the former Australia wicketkeeper said.
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