IND vs AUS: The third Test, which begins on Saturday at the Gabba, will have Travis Head and Shubman Gill coming off dismal streaks, but Brisbane has previously suited Pat Cummins. Gabba’s ledger is once again completely square. With South Africa certain to secure one World Test Championship final slot, India and Australia face a three-match playoff to secure a trip to Lord’s next summer. The Australians, on the other hand, have a bit of a cushion with the Sri Lanka tour early next year. The two-game series will provide them some breathing room if they do not win the three games required to qualify for this series.
Both need at least two wins in the remaining Border-Gavaskar Trophy races to stay on the road, and they’ll arrive in Brisbane with a mix of form, confidence, and memories. Despite the morale-boosting Adelaide comeback, Pat Cummins’ team will be weary of recollections of their last visit to the venue in January, and the historic ’21 cauldron breach, when the Indians were in town. A series of crisscrossing streaks and worries are set to create the talking points this weekend, beginning with Australia’s Adelaide Superman.
Since last year, Rohit Sharma and his teammates have been plagued by Travis Head’s erratic behavior, known as Head’s Gabba. No batsman has crushed an opponent as much as Head has done to India since 2023 across formats: 19 innings, 1052 runs, an average above 60, and scoring rates around 100. Luck has occasionally stood out among the hostility before Head’s onslaughts leave the Indian bowlers numb and rudderless. India has frequently deviated from straightforward plans, which may involve an intentional poor performance early on.
Cricket Stats of Head
| Head (across formats) | Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | SR | 100 | 50 | 0 | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Since 2023 | 73 | 2927 | 163 | 43.04 | 104.53 | 6 | 14 | 6 | 373 | 95 |
| vs India | 19 | 1052 | 163 | 61.88 | 97.04 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 140 | 24 |
The first two in the streak had Head swinging down leg, providing regulation edges to the wicketkeeper off Kagiso Rabada and Kemar Roach, respectively. The third entrance was punctuated by a blistering round-the-stumps yorker from the outstanding Shamar Joseph, who guided the Windies to victory with seven wickets. This time, viewers can examine Head’s impetuousness at the outset more closely. Since his debut in whites with a nine-ball duck in Dubai in 2018, Head has been dismissed on zero five times. Interestingly, four of them were first-year players, all at home. Cummins with a Black Prince flashback While his teammates dominated the first two Tests, captain Cummins restored his poise with a second-inning pink ball fifer that derailed India in Adelaide. And that’s just the kind of gear the opposition wouldn’t have wanted him in before Brisbane.
Gill’s international jet lag With the Big Four hitters in this series – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, and Marnus Labuschagne – enduring the most difficult year of their respective Test careers, the source of match-winning runs has been found elsewhere at both ends. In Shubman Gill’s return, India are gunning for the newfound top three in KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and himself are capable of masking Sharma’s and Kohli’s weaknesses. While No. 3 Gill made two atypical No. 3 cameos in Adelaide, the focus will be on the 24-year-old’s dismal foreign performance since his historic 91 at the Gabba three years ago. Gill, a rookie at the time, scored a scorching knock on day 5 to help India score 325 runs in 95 overs for an epic finish.
