Australia vs Sri Lanka: Travis Head super confident runs will come against spin on Sri Lankan soil

His first batting innings in Sri Lanka sent a few shudders through those watching, but Australia’s Travis Head is adamant spin is not his enemy. He explains why things aren’t always what they seem.

As Travis Head poked and prodded at a few spitting and darting deliveries from the Sri Lankan spinners on a dicey Galle pitch late on the opening day of the first Test he seemed a mile away from the man who blitzed England’s bowlers in the summer.

It was hard for most on a dodgy deck which resulted in a three day test and Head only lasted a few balls after a delayed start to day two before what he called a “mistake” found him back in the pavilion, having survived just 16 deliveries.

The South Australia, who thought he might miss the first of two matches in the seaside town after suffering a hamstring injury a week out, hadn’t enjoyed his first subcontinental test experience in Pakistan and more than one onlooker commented the man on standby, Glenn Maxwell, could have been a better fit.

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Head was coming off two big centuries, including 152 at the MCG, against England when he went to Pakistan where a return of just 68 runs in four innings went against the grain in a series in which most batters thrived.

Australia's Travis Head says he feels in good form despite his first innings failure.

But Head, who stole the show on the final day of the first test by claiming 4-10 in a stunning cameo with the ball, was adamant looks can be deceiving.

He said the fact he finished with a flurry in Pakistan, making a century in his one-day return, was better evidence of his capacity to bat away form Australia.

He also smashed 110 on arrival in Sri Lanka, again in a white-ball game against Sri Lanka A, and was adamant everything was pointing to him making a better fist of things when the second test starts in Galle on Friday.

“I felt my lead-up was really good, I just made a mistake,” he said of his first test dismissal, after getting a leading edge off spinner Dhananjaya de Silva to be removed for just six.

“It’s amazing all the work you can do in the nets and feel good and prepare the best way and talk it, but it’s about going out and emulating that.

“It‘s just you make one mistake and you sit in the sheds. I’ve played well on spinning pitches in Australia, these are different, I’ve never played on a wicket like that, so another one to take into consideration, and going to get a chance the next four or five days.”

Indeed doubling-down on batting plans has been the mantra for the Australian team in Sri Lanka, pushed by captain Pat Cummins to be proactive and bat to the team direction, with no fear of failure,

Head did his best work with the ball in Galle. Picture: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images

“Failure is absolutely OK, as long as you are failing in a way you are happy to be,” he said.

Head has taken that on board, feeling like any deviation from his best laid plans would only do both him and the team a disservice.

“I think Pakistan, started with the Test series and started a bit lean then finished off with the one dayers and felt like the way I did play in the one dayers was really positive,” he said.

“Talking to the people closest to me, I just need to keep doubling down on that plan and keep backing it in and try to execute it.

“A few people spoke during the last series, when you second-guess yourself or try to change things for the next Test, you get yourself in more trouble.

“So nice and clear couple of days of training and make sure I come in best prepared to play my role and there‘s no doubt that is to bat.”

Head declared the hamstring injury which nearly prevented him from taking his pace was “100 per cent” and there was no lingering concern going in to the second game.

“I was 100 per cent. If I woke up lame the morning of the test or it if felt different, I wasn’t going to play,” he said.

“It’s a little bit different playing cricket for Australia, there is nowhere to hide. There’s no way to get through Test matches. There’ll be no concerns of worries going in to the next Test.”

Records tumble as spinners spark collapse in bizarre finish

Only nine bowlers in Test history have taken more wickets than Nathan Lyon after Australia’s greatest ever off-spinner took his turn to star and bowled his team to its first victory in Sri Lanka for a decade inside three-days in a stunning result in Galle.

Lyon, with spin partner Mitch Swepson and a brilliant four-wicket second innings cameo from Travis Head, outperformed an assembly line of the home team’s slow bowlers who were presented with a pitch to suit but couldn’t muster the skill of the 109-test star who ascended in to the top 10 of all-time wicket takers in the second innings.

His four second innings wickets added to the five Lyon took in the first, giving him match figures of 9-121 as he demolished a wilting Sri Lankan batting line-up unable to produce the sort of fight not only shown by Australians on the dust bowl pitch but also expected by a home crowed buoyed by a one-day series victory which proved a false dawn.

“Probably hard for me to say what was done in the past, but that’s been a big one for us,’’ Australian captain Pat Cummins said.

“In the past you can get caught up in conditions that aren’t like Australia. But if you want to be the number one test team in the world you have to win overseas.

“I think everyone, the experienced guys finding new shots, Gaz (Lyon) coming up with a few new balls, there is so much appetite to learn and be successful on these wickets which as a captain couldn’t be more pleasing.”

It was test cricket played in fast-forward, with 30 wickets falling inside the just six full sessions after the loss of play on a chaotic two, and the Sri Lankan batsman also scoring at more than five runs an over on day three before crumbling completely in a calamitous display.

Needing just five runs to get to the win, a six from Australian opener David Warner sealed the victory before lunch on day three, the match lasting just 155, overs, putting the match inside the 20-fastest tests of all time.

“It’s happened a lot quicker than we thought,” Cummins said.

“I think the wicket was similar to the way we thought. Knew spin was going to play a huge role. Probably thought it’s going to be in three-four days rather than just over two days.

“I think that planning with the week leading in came in with some clear plans for the spinners and that contributed hugely.

Khawaja said after his first innings of 71 that “If you try and block on that wicket too often, it’s almost good night”.

But attacking batting from the home team as they looked to force the Australians to bat again proved their undoing, losing wickets as rapidly as they were making runs, their cavalier attitude brought about their downfall in inexplicable fashion.

Nathan Lyon did the job early in the innings for the Aussies. Picture: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images

Lyon, inserted at the northern end where he bowled 25 first innings overs, including 22 straight, broke through first before Swepson (2-34), bowling in the fifth over in a rare dual-spin attack so early for Australia, joined the party.

They snared the opening four wickets, then two wickets in an over, his first over, from part-timer Head (4-10) quickly became four before lunch as Sri Lanka completely crumbled in the fact of a task too hard on a crumbling pitch their batsman showed no capacity to handle.

With first day batting failures of head, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith well forgotten it proved an all-conquering performance form the Aussies who matched their win at Galle in 2011, the only one of that series, and showed themselves to be a different unit for the team swept aside 3-0 in 2016.

Lyon conceded in the lead-in to the first team and he’d earned significant lessons from that tour, and by numbers also returned to the island nation a more accomplished and skilled bowler, which played out in the names he went past on the all-time list.

His first day three wicket put him equal with Australia’s tormentor in its last Sri Lankan tour in 2016, Rangana Herath, on 433 test wickets and the lack of anything like the wily left-armer in the current team left the hoe team without the potency they hoped for.

Lyon’s second wicket, in just his sixth over of the morning, and one of three victims caught trying to sweep against balls launching, not bouncing, off the Galle pitch, put him equal with Indian legend Kapil Dev on 434.

Every wicket after that inched him towards the next man on the list, South African great Dale Steyn who has 439, a number Lyon, who finished on 4-36 after his demolition job, is sure to pass in the second test which will also be played at Galle.

Lyon’s career wicket tally now stands above some of the most revered names in the game, having gone past Sir Richard Hadlee with his five first innings scalps, which was also the 20th five-wicket haul of his career, a feat only four other Australian bowlers have achieved.

The Australian innings had earlier been wrapped up just eight balls into the day when captain Pat Cummins and Mitchell Swepson were both bowled, leaving Sri Lanka 109 runs behind, and a total which proved insurmountable for Sri Lanka.

Originally published as Australia vs Sri Lanka: Travis Head super confident runs will come against spin on Sri Lankan soil