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After the comprehensive defeat in the Perth Test, Australia made a comeback in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 on the back of Travis Head who has scored two centuries in the series so far. Head has left Indian bowling clueless with his counterattacks in the middle order and earned a nickname 'headache' from former India coach Ravi Shastri. However, there is a question mark over his availability for the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). On December 24, Australia head coach Andrew McDonald ruled out concerns regarding Head's fitness but did not confirm whether he will play in the fourth Test a 100 per cent.
"Has he got some things to work through? Yeah, he has," McDonald told the reporters after the practice session on December 24. "So that's what you would have seen. There's no concern at the moment. Has he been officially ticked off? I'm not sure. I didn't see the sort of back-end of his training session there, but I'm pretty confident he'll play.
"I think he looked good with the bat in hand so obviously skills are in good order. Yeah, it'll just be basically what risk is associated with that. He had a small strain to the quad.
"But no concerns from my end. He's been able to be running, yeah, so I think he'll be fully functional come the game time."
Lengthy discussion was around Head's fielding position after net session
After Head had a hit in the nets, there was a lengthy conversation between him, physio Nich Jones and the batter. McDonald said that it was regarding his fielding position considering the strain in his quad as he fields at short leg.
"It was more around his fielding position and what he was capable of there," McDonald said. "Clearly coming off a strain he's got that, obviously the demands of bat pad.
"So that's all that was about. And my question to Nick Jones was just around what he's got to do to finish off the session, so I was across it beforehand, or just making sure nothing had changed during the session, and then we just started to speak about India, what they might do. So it was nothing really that specific."
What if Head doesn't recover?
If Head is not cleared to play the fourth Test, he is likely to be replaced by wicketkeeper-batter Josh Inglis. Currently, Inglis is playing in the Big Bash League (BBL) for Perth Scorchers. He scored 49 runs in the first game against Hobart Hurricanes and was dismissed for a single-digit score in the clash against Melbourne Renegades. Inglis is capable of launching a counter attack as well. The 29-year-old who has a first-class average over 36 may make his Test debut in Melbourne if Head doesn't play.
Head's numbers
So far, Head is the leading run-scorer in the series by far with 409 runs from five innings at an average of 81.80 including two centuries and one fifty. The 30-year-old has a stellar record against India as he averages over 51 against them with 1,124 runs from 23 innings including three centuries and four fifties.
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