When India collected 180 in their first innings while deciding to bat first in the second Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 at the Adelaide Oval, the pressure was on him. It mounted over when Travis Head, the left-handed middle-order homeboy, tore apart the bowling department of the touring side.

Australia started the day in a good position with just one down, having already fetched over 86 runs, but they soon lost two quick wickets in the form of Nathan McSweeney and Steve Smith for just 17 runs added on the board when Travis Head walked into the middle and looked to go with an aggressive approach.

The left-handed batter has always enjoyed batting against the Indian team across formats, especially in the last year or so. He smashed a brilliant century in the final of the last World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 cycle at the Kennington Oval in South London before celebrating another ton against the Rohit Sharma-led side in the final of last year’s ODI World Cup 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

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Travis Head cut the short balls in Adelaide for boundaries at a constant rate before whipping the leg-sided deliveries for more fours. When the Indian team introduced Ravichandran Ashwin into the attack, the homeboy sent him for a six at the start of his spell. The South Australian batter celebrated his second century in Tests against India, which is overall his eighth one with an average of around 42.

Watch: Travis Head gets a hand gesture from Mohammad Siraj after scoring 140

Since the start of 2023, Travis Head has grabbed 1052 runs across formats against India in 19 innings at an average of around 62, shouldering on four half-centuries and three centuries. In the same period, he struggled with 1875 runs in 54 innings against the other sides at an average of below 37, smashing ten half-centuries and three centuries.

The 30-year-old ended with 140 runs in 141 balls with a strike rate of around 100, shouldering on 17 boundaries and four over boundaries. The over when he was dismissed found him grilling a few constant boundaries to Mohammad Siraj, who, at last, with a creaming yorker, disturbed the stumps and then had a few aggressive exchanges of words.

That triggered Travis Head, who came back with a few words. Siraj showed his hand gesture at the batter, signaling him to get out of the crease. That triggered the batter, who got full support from the crowd before leaving the field with full applause.

Siraj got boss from the crowd at the venue and kept on getting that whenever the ball was near the bowler. The umpires seemed to have a discussion with him as well. He has a history with the Australian crowd, having been on the receiving end of racial abuse during the previous tour in 2020-21.

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Australia, shouldering on the knock of Travis Head, finished on 337, taking a lead of 157 runs, while Marnus Labuschagne also notched up a half-century on his name. Both Jasprit Bumrah and Siraj celebrated four wickets each.

India lost KL Rahul early in their second innings, who was cramped by the short ball against Pat Cummins and got an inside edge into the hands of the wicket-keeper. Yashasvi Jaiswal also got an outside edge on the very first ball against Scot Boland, as Australia finds themselves ahead in the contest to go 1-1 level before the third fixture at the Gabba in Brisbane.




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