The much-anticipated World Test Championship Final (WTC) began at The Oval on Wednesday, June 7, with Australia topping India at the end of the first day. Despite winning the toss, Rohit SharmaThe team led by Travis Head and Steve Smith were pushed on the backfoot, with the pair putting on 251* for the fifth wicket to help Australia post 327/3 in 85 overs.
Head smashed his maiden Test century overseas to tear apart the Indian pace attack in London. The left-handed batsman is batting at 146* from 156 and a strike rate of 93.58 has propelled him to the top of the charts for the highest strike rate in the WTC cycle 2021-2023. Head has now scored 1354 runs in 18* matches in the WTC cycle 2021-2023 at an average of 58.86 and a strike rate of 81.91.
He now maintains the highest strike rate in the WTC cycle 2021-2023 as he went past star Indian batsman Rishabh Pant who has scored 868 runs at a strike rate of 80.81. The Indian wicket-keeper batsman is unable to play in the WTC final in December 2022 due to an injury sustained in a car accident. After the match, Head revealed that the pitch remained challenging for the batsmen and would be difficult to bat on the second day.
“If you get into it in the right area there’s a lot out there,” Head said. “As the game goes on, hopefully, it gets a bit quicker for us and we can find the right length, and I think if you do that for long on it can be a challenging wicket.
“That was such a good length hard work on top of the stumps. And as we do [saw] It wasn’t the most consistent wicket when they went to the short-pitched scheme, and Dukes swings a bit so it made for some awkward moments.”
Head’s 146* also helped them overtake England Johnny Bairstow Entered the top five list for the first time in the WTC Cycle 2021-2023 run chart. england Joe Root comfortably leads the charts with 1915 runs while Head’s teammate Usman KhawajaThose who got out for zero on the first day are second in the list with 1608 runs.