Travis Head takes advantage of England’s short stuff to keep Australia in fight

Two and a half Ashes Tests into the series, this was the real quiz. The third day at Headingley involved a lot of waiting, the covers coming on and off in a damp cold dance of the seven veils. An extra two sessions for England to leave Mark Wood floating in the plasma tank, soothing his mind with a tropical VR experience while infusing his fast-bowling muscles with restorative calf’s blood.

Then, it was on. Some distance after an early tea break, Australia got ordered out to bat, already four wickets down, Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head to the middle. Throughout the contests at Edgbaston and Lord’s, England’s bowling has not quite done the deed. Here in Leeds, Wood rocketed through Australia in first-day sunshine, before this second-innings stanza under cloud.

With the showers having come and gone all day, it felt like this brief foray could end at any minute. Initially it did, the players off after six balls. A few minutes later they returned. There was only one team that could benefit, the batting side having no idea whether they should play for the likelihood of a coming abandonment or whether they should assume a longer stay.

It was the proper Yorkshire deal: dark overhead, sweaty humid air, loud from the stands, an atmosphere heavy and threatening in every sense. Within that came stifling bowling, movement through the air, every delivery carrying menace. For the corresponding fixture four years ago, Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad had been led by Jofra Archer in making the most of all of the above. This time they had Wood.

Not that he was given first shot at the Australians when the innings resumed. Woakes was, extracting extra bounce to twice dismiss Australians by the underside of the glove. Marsh cannoned a couple to the boundary but neither he nor Alex Carey could get hands high enough trying to leave. Marsh deflected to the keeper, Carey on to the stumps. Australia’s lead was 165.

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Meanwhile, Broad was bowling supremely, curving and seaming the ball, especially from around the wicket away to Australia’s many left-handers. Wood had Mitchell Starc caught by short leg, then Pat Cummins caught behind. Already public enemy No 1 of the terraces, Cummins doubled their jeers by reviewing the decision, allowing them to cheer the umpire raising a finger twice.

It was all going to plan – except for the matter of Head. When he was on strike, the wisdom of convention went astray. No outswingers, no slips, no wobble seam from around the wicket. Here was one left-hander that Broad didn’t get a shot at. Head, according to England, would be undone by the short ball. So the short ball was all he would get.

It was a bizarre spectacle. Take Woakes, one of England’s finest swing exponents, in conditions like these after hours of delays, and have him bowl the first ball of the day halfway down the track with five fielders on the fence behind square. Have Broad do the same. Most of the day Head didn’t even have a slip, England preferring a deep backward point, deep third, deep fine leg, deep backward square, and deep forward square. Two or three fielders drifted vaguely within cooee of the bat.

Perhaps England’s bowlers were thinking of other Travis Head innings when teams pitched the ball up in favourable conditions and still got rocked like a southbound train. It happened to them in Brisbane in 2021, Hobart 2022. It happened to India in the World Test Championship final a month ago. So while it looked like they thought they were bowling to a tailender, perhaps this was less about bouncing him out and more about throttling his scoring by making him score his runs in singles hooked to fine leg.

For a time, it worked, but partly because Head was willing to play that game. Scoring was tough, so was he, ducking and weaving, picking the balls to deflect, absorbing the pressure. He went through his first 71 balls with one boundary, an almost unprecedented stretch of restraint in his career. Then when Starc was out, seven wickets down, he switched modes, 43 from his last 30.

There was a glimmer of Stokes from the previous day, the way Head stepped back and battered Wood and Woakes over the leg side into the crowd. There was cleverness in the way he managed the strike while Todd Murphy barely saw the ball. There was substance in the way he rescued Australia, again, as he has made such a habit of doing. A lead of 251 may or may not be enough, but from the most testing circumstances he extracted the means to fight.