Mark Waugh says Travis Head should be batting at No.5 in Australian Test side

Mark Waugh has cast doubt over the long-term future of Travis Head as a Test opener, urging selectors to make plans to get the attacking weapon back into the middle-order.

At first glance Jake Weatherald’s 77-run opening stand with Travis Head is a firm snapshot of Australia’s future - Mark Waugh doesn’t buy it.

“I honestly don’t think Travis Head is a long-term opener,’’ Kayo commentator and Test great Waugh told this masthead.

“I think he is better at five. Technically he is an eye player. He is better suited when the ball is a bit softer and and the bowlers are tiring and he can cash in.’’

Interesting point ... it’s fine saying Head didn’t let the side down with a cheeky 33.

But can you imagine the carnage he could have created down the list?

The Australian openers debate has become cricket’s version of global warming. A million theories. No consensus.

When Australia’s openers go out to bat these days, Australia holds it’s collective breath.

You could feel the tension in a packed and curiously quiet Gabba when Head and Weatherald were facing up to Jofra Archer.

Every wobbly moment seemed to salt old, deep wounds, none more than when Head was grassed by keeper Jamie Smith off Jofra Archer who fell to his knees like a farmer who’s just seen his crop wiped away by a hurricane.

It felt like one of the series’ biggest moments on a deck which is not handing out free wickets but Head fell for 33 to a skied edge to mid-on.

These two will be fun if they last.

Australia’s batsmen were rubbing their hands together with rare glee at what they saw on day one, sensing this could be fill-your-boots Friday.

Head and Weatherald have made an impressive start to their new partnership, placing pressure on the injured Usman Khawaja.

But, when it comes to openers, Australia never gets too ahead of itself.

Since David Warner’s retirement Australia has had eight different sets of openers with none batting together in more than 10 innings.

Head and Weatherald are an interesting duo. Both lefties. Former South Australian Shield team-mates and fellow Big Bash champions with the Adelaide Strikers seven years ago when both batted in the top three.

As a youngster in the South Australian Shield team captained by Head, Weatherald once turned up to Head’s house to pick up some gloves and told Head’s father how he wanted to play like his son.

Have Australia found a new star opening duo? Patrick HAMILTON / AFP

And he does. Clipped. Punchy. Upbeat and dangerous.

Australia’s search for the right opening duo has become so dire that since Warner retired it lies eighth on the ladder for most productive opening partnerships with an average of just 27 per stand.

The only nations who have done worse are Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Ireland and the West Indies.

But it’s not as if openers from other nations are smashing it. Last year they averaged 28 per stand. That’s the lowest in the last 75 years.

No-one really knows what the perfect chemistry is until you find it because there were so many different blends.

Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden were often seen out having dinner together and team-mates nicknamed them Romeo and Juliet.

Bob Simpson and Billy Lawry clicked beautifully on the field but went their separate ways off the field, Simpson to the golf course and Lawry to his beloved pigeons.

As for Trav and Jake ... you couldn’t look away. That’s a good start.

Originally published as Mark Waugh says Travis Head should be batting at No.5 in Australian Test side