Travis Head praises Jasprit Bumrah as one of the greatest fast bowlers, discusses Australia's performance in Perth, and emphasizes unity within the team ahead of the upcoming pink ball Test in Adelaide.
Australia's Travis Head believes that Jasprit Bumrah will be remembered as "one of the greatest fast bowlers to play the game" and shared that he’ll proudly tell his grandchildren about the challenging experience of facing the Indian pace sensation. Bumrah cemented his reputation as the world's top bowler with a brilliant performance in the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth, where India triumphed by 295 runs.
"Jasprit will go down as probably one of the greatest fast bowlers to play the game. I think we're finding that at the moment -- how challenging he can be, and it's nice to play against that," Head told reporters on Monday.
"It's gonna be nice to go back and look at your career and go tell the grandkids that you faced him. So not a bad series of playing with him. Hopefully I'll face a few more times, but he is as being challenging," he added.
Bumrah, captaining the visiting side, led by example with a remarkable match haul of 8/72, taking several key wickets and demonstrating his outstanding form. His exceptional performance highlighted his consistent brilliance throughout the year.
Earlier in the year, Bumrah was named Player of the Series in the T20 World Cup, where he played a pivotal role in India's title-winning campaign.
Head was the only Australian batter to score a fifty in Perth, while the top order, including Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, and Marnus Labuschagne, struggled. Despite his own success, the dynamic middle-order batter is confident his teammates won’t be seeking advice from him.
"They are not coming to me for batting tips, that’s for sure. Everyone goes about it in different ways. We’ll have a chat over the next three or four days. (Bumrah) is so unique, and that’s with any of the bowlers, really. Every (batter) picks up different cues and goes about it in a different way," he said.
The Australian squad came together again on Monday after a brief break. The two teams will now face off in a pink-ball Test in Adelaide starting Friday, at the same venue where India were dismissed for just 36 in their last visit in 2020.
Recalling that match, Head said, "I remember that it was a quick test, so it was good. We got to enjoy all of the bits of Adelaide afterwards. It'll be nice to do that again. Don't know if we can revisit. It wouldn't take very long to watch it. I don't think that will happen this week."
While India played a day-night pink-ball match against the Prime Minister's XI over the weekend, Australia’s most recent pink-ball Test was in January.
"It's been a long time since we played one (pink ball), India got another look at it last night. Everyone's well experienced enough, especially that team as well, that in your international level. I think you can accustomed to things pretty quickly. I don't think it'll take them long to be prepared for it, and same as us," Head said.
Head insisted that there is no "divide" between Australia's struggling batting and bowling units, despite suggestions of a rift following a comment made by Josh Hazlewood during the first Test.
"We hold high expectations for both sides (batting and bowling) and it's a very individualised sport," Head said.
"So batters, we want to hold our own - we know how good our bowlers have been for us in the past and they've got us out of trouble a lot. As a batting group, we know that if we get enough runs on the board, we put ourselves in a great position. As a batter myself, I try to take a whole lot of pride in what I do, and knowing that if I can set it up for the big boys, that they can knock it down for us, so definitely no divide," Head added.
Head expressed confidence that the Australians would bounce back from their disappointing performance in Perth.
"This team has dealt with adversity well. The small amount that we have had in the last three or four years, we have played well. We've had some challenging times and a couple of challenging Tests last year. We didn't have a very good week. That's fine. But we have got four more opportunities to do it, we will crack on as we do, as we have done for the last few years. Over the last couple of years, there's a lot of teams that lost the first Test or gone down in the series and brought it back and played really well," the Australians said.
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