Travis Head wants to 'keep the chatter' alive on Test opening role

New Delhi: After scoring a magnanimous 154 not out knock against England in the first ODI at Trent Bridge on Thursday, Australia batter Travis Head rides high on confidence and wants to keep the conversation alive on his reappointment as Test opener.

Head’s 129-ball 154* studded with five sixes and 20 fours guided Australia to a comfortable seven-wicket win with 36 balls to spare in a chase of 316. After playing a match-winning knock, the Player of the Match awardee was asked whether he would be interested in taking the opening slot in Tests as well, Head replied: “Yeah, keep the chatter, makes it interesting. I’m not gonna dive into that. I’ll just let that play out.”

Previously, Head, who plays as an opener in white-ball cricket, claimed that opening is a specialist’s job.

However, Australia Test opener Usman Khawaja backed the idea of shuffling Head to top order and shifting Steve Smith back to No. 4.

“He’s obviously been very successful opening the batting in one-day cricket and, breaking it down, I’d probably lean towards him,” Khawaja had said.

In his previous stint as Test opener in the India tour last year in the absence of David Warner, Head scored 223 runs at an average of 55 in the five innings including a score of 90 in Ahmedabad. His best knock as a Test opener came at the all-important World Test Championship final against India at The Oval when he scored 163 to guide Australia to the maiden red-ball title. Later in the year, he played another historic 137 in the ODI World Cup final against India to help the side complete the ICC trophy cabinet. Commenting on his historic knock in the ODI series opener against England, Head said, “Happy days. Hopefully there’ll be more in two days’ time.”

After Warner retired from international cricket, Smith was promoted to partner Khawaja at the top. However, the star batter hasn’t been performing at his best in the opening slot, leading the management to push for his return to his original No. 4 position, which could potentially leave the opening spot vacant once again.

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