For both Travis Head and the Australian cricket hierarchy, the team’s commanding six-wicket win over England at the Adelaide Oval could hardly have gone better.
Not only was a second-string English attack comfortably dispatched to run down a target of 288 set up almost single-handedly by a sublime century from Dawid Malan with 19 balls to spare; but Head’s brisk 69 as part of a 147-run stand with David Warner (86) at better than 7 runs per over has officially locked him in as Aaron Finch’s replacement at the top of the order.
There are still nearly 12 months until the first ball is bowled in India for the 2023 World Cup, but Head, given first chance to partner Warner after a dominant Marsh Cup last summer, couldn’t have done more to make it his spot to lose.
Positives weren’t hard to find for Australia, though, notwithstanding significantly lower stakes than at any point in their ill-fated T20 World Cup campaign. Steve Smith (80 not out) was at his brilliant best and appeared to benefit from a slightly altered stance, his cover drive dazzling early and bringing up the winning runs with a six off Malan.
For England, a bowling attack shorn of World Cup champions Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali plus Mark Wood never looked likely to slow the Aussies down, while with the bat only Malan’s sparkling 128-ball 134 helped guide them to a total that at least looked competitive at the change of innings.
MORE TO COME
