Travis Head says Australian side on same page after Test defeat

Australia’s most in-form batter denies there is any tension between their struggling top order and the “big four” bowling attack.

Travis Head says there is no tension between Australia’s struggling bats and the bowling attack as he prepares for another fierce examination from Jasprit Bumrah in Adelaide.

The left-hander said Bumrah would go down as one of the game’s greatest fast bowlers but was confident the Aussie top order still relished the challenge of taking him on despite a humiliating loss in the first Test.

Bumrah was poised to relinquish the captaincy in Adelaide for a returning Rohit Sharma as India also weighed up a return for No.3 Shubman Gill and possible recall for either Ravichandran Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja at the expense of Washington Sundar.

“(The other batters) are not coming to me for batting tips, that’s for sure. Everyone goes about it in different ways … we’re all supporting each other … we’ll have a chat over the next three or four days,” Head said in Adelaide on Monday.

Indian vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah (right) again looms as the key player in Friday’s second Test at the Adelaide Oval as Ravichandran Ashwin (left) could also earn a recall. Picture: Saeed Khan / AFP

“(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.

“Jasprit’s going to 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.

“It’s going to be nice to look back at your career and tell the grandkids that you faced him, so not a bad series to be playing with him.”

Head said he “wouldn’t dive into” any commentary about a lack of appropriate preparation for the Border-Gavaskar series and was adamant there was no rift in the Australian dressing room after post-play comments from Josh Hazlewood during the Perth Test were perceived in some quarters as a dig at the underperforming top order.

“Batters want to hold our own … we know how good our bowlers have been in the past,” Head said.

Travis Head denied there was any rift between Australia’s batting line-up and bowling attack after post-play comments by Josh Hazlewood (pictured) in Perth were overblown. Picture: Saeed Khan / AFP

“Knowing that if I can set it up for the big boys, they can knock it down for us, so definitely no bad blood.

“I feel like this team has dealt with adversity well, with the small amount that we’ve had in the last three or four years.

“We’ve had some challenging times, we had a couple of challenging Tests last year that we were able to get ourselves out of.

“Our heads aren’t in the clouds, we understand a few Tests last year we understand could’ve gone either way.”

Head backed veteran quick Scott Boland to have an impact with the pink ball if he returned in Hazlewood’s absence, saying the Victorian had a great record against his South Australia at the Adelaide Oval.

But like Boland on Sunday, he was also in the dark over whether the 35-year-old would get the call-up ahead of uncapped squad additions Sean Abbott and Brendan Doggett.