Travis Head enjoyed early reprieve when he was let go by Mohammed Shami in the first over of the Champions Trophy semi-final between India and Australia in Dubai on Tuesday. Australia had won the toss and decided to bat against the Men in Blue.
Shami, who started with a wide, squared up Head on the very first legitimate ball of the match. The left-handed Head closed the face of the bat to an in-angling short of length ball. The leading edge went to the right of Shami who stuck out his right hand but was unable to hold on.
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The disappointment was evident on the face of fellow India fielders considering the importance of Head’s wicket – who has been India’s nemesis over the last couple of years.
The Aussie batter’s stay was halted on 39 runs when he fell to Varun Chakravarthy. The spinner struck on his second ball of the match and first to the left-hander, with Shubman Gill completing the catch at long-off.
The importance of the wicket was not lost on the Indian camp and the crowd who celebrated loudly.
Head scored 137 runs the last India and Australia met in the ODI format. More importantly, it came in the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup which put the game beyond India’s reach one home soil.
The 31-year-old was a problem for India in the 2023 World Test Championship final as well as during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
In nine ODIs against India, Head has produced 345 runs at an average of 43.12 with the highest, of 137 runs, coming in the World Cup.
At the toss in Dubai, Steve Smith chose to bat and announced they were going with two changes. India lost their 14th successive toss dating back to the 2023 World Cup final.
Australia have made two changes with 21-year-old Cooper Connolly coming in for injured Matthew Short. Leg spin bowler Tanveer Sangha has come in for pacer Spencer Johnson.
Over in the India camp, there are no changes from the four spinner and two seamers approach that the Men in Blue employed against New Zealand on Sunday. Shami and Hardik Pandya are the two pacers in the playing XI while the spin bowling duties fall on Varun Chakravarthy, who took 5-42 against the Black Caps, joins Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav.