Australia batter Travis Head has called for a collective batting effort from his team after a series of individual performances failed to prevent two heavy defeats in their last four Tests, highlighting the need to build substantial partnerships and handle pressure better. Australia have struggled to find consistency with the bat in recent months, with their last four matches against Bangladesh and South Africa exposing a recurring problem. Across seven innings against the two sides, no more than one Australian batter has crossed the fifty-run mark in any innings.
The issue was evident in Australia’s nine-wicket defeat to Bangladesh in Darwin and their innings-and-31-run loss to South Africa in Gqeberha. Head’s 121 in the second innings against South Africa also came in a losing cause While Cameron Green scored a second-innings hundred against Bangladesh.
Australia batter Travis Head has called for a collective batting effort from his team after a series of individual performances failed to prevent two heavy defeats in their last four Tests, highlighting the need to build substantial partnerships and handle pressure better.
“That’s what does win you games, individual performances, but as a collective we need to be able to do it as well. Australia’s batting struggles have persisted despite two victories in their last four Tests. “It’s something that the team have been really good at over a long period of time, being able to build big partnerships, substantial partnerships that win games of cricket. We just haven’t been able to find that in the last couple of months. It’s very hard to put a finger on why. “Trying to gain momentum, trying to withstand momentum, trying to put pressure back on the opposition and how you do that is in different ways: do you soak it up and defend, or do you push forward and fight fire with fire? “There’s pressure on, it’s pretty obvious to see, and obvious in the way he reacts. He got away with an LBW and you can see he knows it was a big moment and he’s disappointed. Nothing is ever guaranteed in this game, and I can’t speak on what happens in the future, but you know he’s a good player. “Test cricket is bloody hard, but we’re in a performance-based game, so everyone feels the pressure. I’ve felt the pressure over the last couple of weeks. I’ve been desperate for runs. So everyone feels that, no matter their position. Everyone wants to score runs,” he concluded.
So that’s the balancing act. I thought what Baz [Scott Boland] did (40 in more than three hours from No. 6 in the second innings in Gqeberha) was exceptional for the team. Their innings win in Mackay was built around Mitchell Starc’s bowling, while the batting line-up managed only 146 for seven, with Green the only batter to score a fifty. In Durban, Matt Renshaw’s match aggregate of 272 runs stood out from the contributions of his teammates. Steve Smith has 11,000 Test runs and I reckon he’ll feel pressure at some stage too.
A little bit more of those supportive roles goes a long way; we just haven’t been able to find that,” said Head. We’re playing some exceptional attacks in some trying conditions, but it’s not a lack of trying,” he said, as per Cricinfo. “The game is all about momentum,” Head said, as per Cricinfo.
