Australia batsman knows only one way to play and his 150 at the Gabba was a classic of the genre with sixes and risks taken
Perhaps it has had its time, but a staple of
Cricket commentary used to be nominating which player you would like to bat for your life. For those of my vintage, it was always Steve Waugh. Chewing gum, trudging, plonking his bundle of baggy green rags on his head, Waugh would rake his flat stare over a pitch and an opposing team as if he would literally rather die than give them his wicket. He kept his average above 50 by sheer force of will. He came across as the ultimate obdurate bastard, the man who broke Jason Gillespie’s leg with his own face.
If you were playing the Bat For Your Life sweepstakes, a player you would be terrified to draw would be Travis Head. A one-way ticket out of the Hunger Games for you. If Waugh epitomised obduracy, Head has epitomised looseness, constantly fiddling around off stump like a teenager who has just discovered the habit. He has hopped and chopped and prodded. Even his strike rotation to length balls uses an angled bat, risk where none is needed. He may not be the only player caught twice in a Test match off a top edge at deep third man, but they could probably fit in one carriage on a Ferris wheel.