Premier Australia batter Travis Head will skip the white-ball series against Pakistan at home to spend some quality time with family before he gets cracking at the Indian bowling attack during the upcoming high-octane five-Test series, starting November 22 in Perth.
Head, who is expecting his second baby with wife Jess, is taking a break from next month’s three-match ODI Series against Pakistan and won’t feature in the subsequent T20 campaign against the same opposition.
According to cricket.com.au, Head will enjoy “a rare clear break from cricket in the lead-up to the opening NRMA Insurance Test against India at Perth Stadium from November 22, with his preparation for that series yet to be fully finalised”.
In the last 365 days, Head has been away from home for 330 and feels that with the expansion of the family, his priorities will change in coming days.
“I’ll probably make decisions in the future around family more, and what drives me to play is probably more my family and my teammates,” Head said during the official announcement of his one-year BBL deal to remain with Adelaide Strikers.
While the Sheffield Shield game for South Australia on a bouncy track would have been ideal preparation for Perth, Head feels that he will relax a bit before resuming training for the India series.
“I probably won’t hit for the next little bit, I’ll probably just chill,” Head said.
Head said that unlike Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith, who can bat for endless hours at the nets, his ideal way is to play a lot of matches with a break from net session.
“If I bat every day it will become boring, if that makes sense. I’m not built like Marnus (Labuschagne) or Smithy (Steve Smith), who can bat day-in and day-out. I want to be excited around the fact of batting. I want to be hungry for runs,” he explained his process.
“I’ve been batting a fair bit, and I don’t need it. Over the years, I have worked out, I’ve played better sometimes when I’ve had a little bit of a spell from batting,” he said.
“I’m already thinking about it, but I think that mental refresh and walking into the nets … I’m someone who needs energy, who looks forward to batting and who’s excited about batting.” He gave some insight into how he will train before the India series.
“I’ll continue to do a bit of work in the gym and run a little bit, so I’ll do that over the next couple of weeks and as I get closer to whether it be a Shield game or going to Perth (India Test) for prep, I’ll start batting a bit more and start working on things.”
