Travis Head banking upon IPL experience to perform against India
Left-handed Australian batsman Travis Head is banking upon the Indian Premier League (IPL) experience to perform and help his side topple India in the five-match ODI series which begins Sunday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Head has played seven matches for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the two IPL seasons. He has scored 151 runs and has taken two wickets in the matches played.
From September 17, India begin its home season with a limited-overs series against familiar foe, Australia.
"Personally, I have had a couple of IPLs and been over here. I haven't played a great deal but have been around the conditions and have adapted to the style I guess. It's not too dissimilar to how I play normally," Head said during a press conference on Thursday.
"And then it's using the other guys, the guys who have played here a lot. Know the conditions really well and try to get a set game plan and get a feel as to how other guys go about it."
"For me personally, it's not about trying too much," he added.
The 23-year-old, who is also a part-time offspinner, feels that adapting to conditions would be vital for his side in the ODI series.
"I think it's just the conditions. Here's a little bit slow and it spins a little bit more than what is it in ODI cricket in Australia," he said.
"For me, it's just about adapting really. I don't change my game plan too much. I stay pretty relaxed and just play the conditions and what's needed at that certain time of the game. So, I try to stay pretty open minded," he added.
Meanwhile, Australia coach David Saker has already put his players on notice to lift their fielding performance against India after they 'really let themselves down' in their warm-up game in Chennai this week.
The visitors spilled four straight-forward catches in their match against Board President's XI on Tuesday, with Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell as well as Travis Head and Adam Zampa the guilty parties.
Speaking about the same Head said, "Yeah fielding could win you or lose you a game. The other day, we weren't as good as we like to be."
Sunday's match at the historic Chepauk Stadium, just the third ODI in Chennai since 2011, is already sold out after thousands of fans queued overnight last weekend to buy tickets.
Australia ODI squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.
India squad (first three ODIs): Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami.
ODI Fixtures:
September 17: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
September 21: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
September 24: Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore
September 28: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
October 1: VCA Stadium, Nagpur
-ANI
