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It was Travis Head who put Indian bowlers to the sword and punished them for the slightest of their errors on Day 1 of the World Test Championship Final at the Oval.
His breathtaking knock of 163 off just 174 balls ensured that Australia had their nose ahead in the all-important final encounter.
When Mohammad Shami castled Marnus Labuschagne just after the lunch break, leaving Australia in a spot of bother at 76/3, Travis Head started playing his natural game, counter-attacking the bowlers, with the experienced campaigner Steve Smith dropping the anchor to perfection.
Head didn't discriminate against any bowler and pounced on every bowler's slightest mistake. He was troubled briefly by a lovely spell from Ravindra Jadeja in the middle, but after adjusting to the line and lengths of the bowler, he made most of his opportunities and scored a fantabulous century in the WTC Final 2023.
Head's game reminds everyone of Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant.
In this article, we will discuss how people's comparisons of Travis Head and Rishabh Pant are not baseless and how they both resemble each other in terms of their game.
#3 Attack is the best mode of defense
Travis Head used to be one of the fringe players in the Australian test set-up until the World Test Championship cycle of 2019–21. He was not regularly playing in the XI with his inconsistent performances.
But after that, he remolded his game and started approaching the attacking brand of cricket by playing in the middle order, putting extra pressure on the bowlers while at the same time easing out the pressure on his fellow batsmen.
His SR of 81.9 is the highest among all batsmen in this WTC cycle. It's not that he is blindly slogging or something, as he has managed to score 1,354 runs at a more than decent clip, averaging 58.9 in 27 innings.
Rishabh Pant plays the same role for the Indian Test team. He also plays attacking cricket, and he also averages more than 50 strikes at 80+ SR in this WTC cycle, just behind Travis Head.
#2 Both Travis Head and Rishabh Pant have clutch temperament
The more pressure their teams find themselves under, the more both of these batsmen perform for their respective teams. Travis Head and Rishabh Pant don't crack down in pressure situations and have a clutch mindset.
Who can forget Pant's heroics in Gabba, Ahmedabad, and Centurion, where he, against all odds, batted out of his skin and put his team in the driver's seat with his fighting spirit?
Travis Head is slowly but steadily developing the same trait and has batted in indifferent situations and bailed out his team more often than not.
#1 Adaptability
Be it swinging conditions in England, spinning tracks in India, bouncy pitches in Australia, or seaming tracks in South Africa, both Pant and Head have shown a great display of adaptability so far in their careers.
Also, different situations demand different approaches to batting. No matter how big shots you are able to play, if the situation demands, you have to drop your guard and play out the sessions, giving respect to the bowlers and conditions before encashing the loose deliveries.
And both of these batsmen possess these ingredients like no other.
