Dubai. Debutant Travis Head, who had the worst start possible in the first innings with a duck, is battling hard with opener Usman Khawaja to lift Australia in the second innings of the first Test against Pakistan in Dubai.
The pair put on 49 runs for the fourth wicket in 18.2 overs to leave them chasing another 326 runs on the final day with seven wickets remaining.
"Our job out there is to make sure if we are in a big partnership, continue that partnership for as long as we can and we can come out in that period. It is about trying to bring the momentum back to us."
- Travis Head | Australian batsman
Head is positive Australia can do it. “We know it’s difficult to start, so our job tomorrow is Usman and myself will go out there and have a really good first hour,” he said. “It’s very important to have a really good start and build the foundation for a very exciting day of cricket.”
Head has regained his confidence after the duck, but admitted he has no room to relax. “As you get in and get a feel for the wicket you start to become more confident out there,” he said. “But there’s no real period where you feel relaxed in these conditions as we’ve seen one wicket can cause a little bit of damage. It’s definitely hard to start. Our job out there is to make sure if we are in a big partnership, continue that partnership for as long as we can and we can come out in that period. It is about trying to bring the momentum back to us. Usman and myself were able to do that. It was really pleasing that we learnt from yesterday. We’ve got to make sure we make every partnership we can as big as we can.”
Head talked about his debut duck too. “I didn’t play to my strengths yesterday. I was probably a little bit too defensive. I have worked extremely hard on my forward defence and I was very eager to get out there, get in there and grind it out. But if the ball is there to be hit, you hit it. That’s what I got taught and that’s how I play my best.”
Head then went on to sportingly praise Pakistan’s Mohammad Abbas. “He has bowled extremely well,” said Head of Abbas, who has seven wickets so far in the Test. “He’s in extremely good form coming from England. At Leicestershire he was taking a lot of wickets as well. Obviously a little bit different conditions here, but his reverse swing bowling is class. To go out there today and to get through it was nice, but he’s always pressurising you. He swung the ball away, he swung the ball in. He asks questions and didn’t leave the stumps. It was quite difficult to score over the last few days when he’s bowled. He’s bowled well again today and he will be someone to watch. We’ll have to be right on top of our game and get through. If we can get him into long spells and hopefully he’s a little bit tired then we can take advantage of it.”
