Former Australian opening batsman Graeme Wood supports calls for Travis Head to continue opening the batting in Australia’s test side, after notching up a stunning match-winning century against England.

The South Australian became a makeshift opener during the second innings of the Perth Test, after Usman Khawaja was unable to open the batting bat due to spasms and discomfort in his lower back. 

In a move that paid dividends, Head put his hands up to replace Khawaja alongside debutant Jake Weatherald, where he smacked the second-fastest test century in Ashes history before getting out on 123 off 83 balls.  

His impressive knock saw Australia seal victory on day two of the Test, beating England at their own ‘Bazball’ style of play. 

Speaking on Sports Breakfast, Wood says it would be worth persisting with Head as an opener if Khawaja is unavailable to play in future tests. 

“He’s not a risk because let’s face it, he opens in one-day cricket,” he said.

“The way he played the other day, I would be thinking the selectors would say that it’s a great opportunity to bring Webster in. 

“You get some solid batting there at number six or seven, another bowler and a great slips fielder.  That would be a really easy option for me if I were a selector.”  

While Head’s attacking style of play paid off, England failed to get their game plan going, with players facing criticised for a lack of discipline against the Australian bowling line-up led by Mitchell Starc who took 10 wickets across the two innings. 

England looked steady at 1-65 runs, but this quickly flipped with the visitors losing four wickets for 11 runs in the space of 19 balls. They were all out on 164 within 34.4 overs with poor shot selection to blame, and suddenly the margin Australia needed to chase down looked achievable. 

Wood said was in disbelief watching England’s decision making while batting during their second innings on day two. 

“If someone had just put the head down after lunch on that second day and bat had set themselves to bat for the session, England would have been able to be set up for a probable win,” he said. 

“But, they just want to continue to just play these ridiculous shots and the wicket was a very good cricket wicket. It was quick, it was bouncy, didn’t have a lot of sideways movement in it. 

“They just played outside off-stamp and across the line with three or four people out on the boundary and hey still continued to try and do it, I could not believe what I was seeing.” 

While Australia had their own batting dilemmas, especially in the first innings which saw them trail England by 40 runs, there were several performances across the board which steered Australia to an 1-0 start to the series. 

“Labuschagne got a 50, Green did pretty well when he played, and he started a bowl a bit. There are so many positives that you can take out of that,” he said.

“You bring Cummins back into the team and maybe Hazlewood, and it’s a world-class attack that’s going to create difficulties for any side, let alone a team that’s playing with the lack of discipline that they currently are.” 

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