Australia’s Head-start changes emphasis and puts India to the sword | Geoff Lemon

When Travis Head arrived at the Oval crease, his side were in a precarious position – now they will enter day two well in charge

Test it out quietly to yourself, because it is not yet a fully formed idea. One to be rolled over the tongue to see how it goes before it is released. But maybe, at least at this moment, Travis Head is Australia’s most important Test batter.

This is not an idea born of his run-a-ball century in the World Test Championship final, when he took Australia from precarity to primacy against India at the Oval. It was when that century was still just a threat, on 28 from 18 balls shortly after Marnus Labuschagne had been clean bowled by Mohammed Shami.