Former Australia opener Tim Paine has made a shocking revelation regarding the relationship between in-form Travis Head and former head coach Justin Langer. Paine revealed that Langer wanted Head to work on his defense, opposite to the batter's nature. As a result, Head tried to please Langer but it did not work in his favour.
“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,” Paine said on SEN.
“They were trying really hard for him to work on his defence and it wasn’t the way he wanted to go about it, 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 recalled.
Paine feels that Langer's sacking helped Head as he started trusting his aggressive nature again rather than defending. Since then, Head has been able to shift the momentum in several Tests with his counter-attacking knocks, the most recent being the 140-run knock against India in the pink-ball Test.
The former wicketkeeper-batter feels that Head will not always be consistent but he should be allowed to play the way he wants to.
“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 matchwinner and we’re just seeing him blossom at the moment in all formats of the game,” the 40-year-old said.
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“But Travis Head plays how Travis Head plays and he has absolute conviction in the way he goes about it. It is amazing to watch a guy just at the peak of his powers at the moment.”
Head nears milestone
Ahead of the Brisbane Test, Head is 45 runs away from completing 1,000 runs against India in Test cricket. The left-handed batter has 955 runs from 12 Tests at ana verage of 47.75 including two centuries and four fifties.
