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“It’s definitely a balancing act,” Head said. “Whether you do it,don’t do it,whether you’ve got the nuts to do it,it’s a hard one. Those wickets are tough and to be able to do it you’ve still got to be able to pick the right spots.
“It’s not all hoo-hah and try to go in every direction. Today was a hard balancing act like that. I wanted to use my feet and come down the wicket,but the last thing I also wanted to do was to run down the wicket[and get out]. Look at Shubman[Gill] and the pressure that creates on the opposition. If he hits that for six,it’s great intent,he’s getting off to a great start. He misses it and it’s a poor shot.
“So the balancing act is hard,you’ve got to be true within your own game,confident with your game,and understand you’ve got to take the good with the bad. With my opportunity today,you’re weighing up the pros and the cons and percentages and trying to execute on the wicket and game scenario.“
The game scenario that Head and Labuschagne identified was a slight easing of conditions after 10 overs,allowing the Australians to look for boundaries after 40 minutes of struggling for singles.
“They didn’t bowl a bad ball for 10 overs,” Head said. “I knew it was going to be difficult for the next bloke,you just want to make the right decisions at the right moments. Thought I was able to navigate through that period well,they bowled some bloody good balls,lucky to get through them.
“That was the luck I was looking at with Delhi,thought I played really well and one ball[Ravichandran Ashwin] spun,bit like Uz[Khawaja] today,you hope you play and miss and you get a little nick. Those things happens,you have to accept them over here. Just try to get through his best ball.”
And as fortunate as Head had been to survive Jadeja’s shooter,he asserted the fact that Australia had,through two years of sustained performance,thoroughly deserved to be the first team to qualify for the World Test Championship final.
“I think we’ve played extremely well for two years so it’s nice to lock that in,” he said. “We’ve deserved that. I think we saw in the Ashes in England in 2019,drawing the series,what that meant. We still came here to win the series,that’s gone,but there’s still a hell of a lot to play for.”
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As for the pitch’s vagaries,Head spoke plainly. The Australian team does not micromanage pitches at home any more than they get to do in India,as much as that may be a surprise to some.
“It’s one of those things – we don’t get to prepare them,we don’t get a say in them so we rock up and play on them,” Head said. “It’s the same in Australia,we don’t get a say in the wickets we get.”
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