Australia's star batter Travis Head scripted history in the high-octane World Test Championship (WTC) final against India at the Oval in London Wednesday (June 7). Head achieved what even Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson couldn't as he became the first batter to smash a century in the WTC final.
None of the batters from India and New Zealand could manage to belt a century in the previous edition of the WTC final in 2021. Earlier, New Zealand's star batter Devon Conway held the record of best individual score (54) in WTC final which came against India back in 2021 but Head turned heads with a scintillating 100 off 106 which was decorated with 14 fours and a maximum and hogged the limelight. Notably, this is Head's sixth Test century overall and first against India.
After Australia's top-order batters were sent packing, it was Head who paired with Steve Smith and steadied team's boat. He rallied Australia from a precarious position to a commanding 223/3 as of 64.3 overs. The 29-year-old walked in the middle when Australia lost Marnus Labuschagne soon after Lunch, when Australia were reeling at 76/3. He made his intention clear right from the word go and started attacking Indian bowlers making the full use of the fuller lengths bowled by them.
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Head found a perfect partner in Steve Smith (57 off 160 not out) at the crease and stitched together 150-plus run stand for the fourth wicket to bolster Australia's innings. Notably Head has be pretty impressive with the willow in the 2021-23 WTC cycle in which he has amassed 1300 runs in 27 innings riding on four hundreds and seven fifties so far.
Interestingly, no Indian batsmen has managed to score even a fifty in WTC final. India's star batter Ajinkya Rahane came closest to a fifty when scored 49 in the WTC final 2021 against New Zealand. Beside Rahane Kohli and star wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant have the highest individual scores for India with 44 and 41 respectively.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma won the toss and put Australia to put first. He also took everyone surprised by dropping Ravichandran Ashwin from India's playing XI in the crunch game against Australia.
“We are going to bowl. Just the conditions and also the weather being overcast. I don't think the pitch will change too much. You have to play good cricket and come out on top. Four seamers and one spinner. The spinner is Jadeja. It's always tough (to leave Ashwin), he's been a match-winner for us over the course of so many years. But you got to do the things that's needed for the team and eventually we came up with that decision. He (Rahane) brings a lot of experience, he's played 80-odd Test matches and he's done well for the team. He's been out for a while but but I don't think the experience that he has can change all of that,” Rohit said after winning the toss.
Meanwhile, Australian skipper Pat Cummins said,"We would have bowled as well, I don't think it makes too much of a difference. Hopefully day four and five, there's a bit of spin. You think it suits his (Boland) bowling, he's in the same spot all day long. This wicket has a bit of grass, he'll be a key weapon. We've been here for about 10 days. Pretty fresh, weather has been nice, we haven't missed a session, feeling good."
India's Playing XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj.
Australia's Playing XI: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland.
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