Australia will lock horns with India in the 2nd Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy at Arun Jaitely Stadium in Delhi. The Pat Cummins-led side lost the first Test match by an inning and 132 runs at Nagpur. Australia’s star batter and fourth-ranked in ICC test batting ranking, Travis Head is likely to play the second test match of the series after skipper Cummins announced he is part of the conversation.
Australian skipper Cummins on the possible inclusion of Head for the 2nd test match-
“Travis (Head) has been awesome, he is been working hard on his game. He is absolutely part of the conversation for this Test as he was in the 1st, Ideally if batters chip in, or someone like green you have, it is ok to go with 4 specialist bowlers,” said Cummins.
Head averages 87.50 from his past five test matches but due to his 21.30 batting average in the subcontinent, he was dropped from the playing 11 of the Nagpur test match. The Aussie side was dismissed for 92 runs in their second inning of the first game and it is likely that the left-hand batter would make it into the squad for the second game.
The right-arm pacer Cummins also reflected on Alex Carey’s sweep shots in the first test match-
“Each player has their individual method, Carey sweeps a lot, but it’s not something everyone is looking to bank on. It is up to that individual,” said Australian captain Cummins.
“Not sure about the pitch, it is a different soil altogether, but not dissimilar in nature of the pitch. We expect it to spin, we will have a discussion over how we can fit in Starc in terms of bowling combination- going with spinners, Boland etc,” the Aussie speedster Cummins further added.
Mitchell Starc is back bowling full tilt and making footmarks and says his finger is ‘on track’ as Australia look to bounce back in the Delhi Test ? #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/iuyLympgRK
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) February 16, 2023
The Baggy Green are set to face the host nation in 2nd test match at Delhi on Friday (17th February). Asian giants have successfully retained the Border Gavaskar Trophy from the last three editions in which two came down under. Australia last won the test series in India in the 2004-05 series under Ricky Ponting’s captaincy tenure.