The talk of the town, Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2023, got underway on Thursday (February 9) when Australia faced India on the Day 1 of the first Test of the four-match series in Nagpur. The Aussies, however, took everyone by surprise as they dropped in form and world no. 4 ranked Test batter Travis Head from the opening game of the BGT 2023.
Winning the toss and opting to bat first, the Pat Cummins-led Australia got off to a rough start and was bundled out for 177. Marnus Labuschagne (49) and Steve Smith (37) were the highest contributors for the Aussies. Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja took a five-wicket haul for India and played a significant role in bowling out the visitors.
Playing in place of Head, Matt Renshaw failed to impress with the bat and was dismissed leg before wicket by Jadeja for a golden duck.
While many seemed baffled and questioned the inclusion of Renshaw over Head, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting in the ICC Review Podcast backed the decision citing there would have been five left-handers if Head was given a place.
“I’ve actually been wondering what they might do with their line-up, The fact that they played Matt Renshaw in Sydney (in the last Test), to me meant that they had probably had other plans in mind for him,” said Ponting
“If they’re going to keep him in, they couldn’t really afford to keep Travis Head in either, because they would’ve had five left-handers in their top seven, which probably would’ve played into Ravi Ashwin’s hands. Ashwin loves, as we know, bowling to left-handers,” he added.
Ponting further said: “The other side of it is that Travis’ record outside of Australia, and particularly in the subcontinent, is nowhere near as good. So when you put all those pieces together, I actually wasn’t that surprised.”
On the other hand, Australia veteran Steve Waugh seemed furious with the Head’s exclusion from the first test against India and took a dig at the selection panel. The 57-year-old took to Instagram and wrote: “Hard to believe we can drop the number 4 ranked test batsman in the world and probably our best batsman in the last 12 months plus he bowls better than average off spin – let’s wait and see-maybe the Aussie selectors are geniuses!”
