Aaron Finch is sticking to his guns. Yes, Travis Head blasted England with that audacious hundred as a makeshift opener in Perth, but Finch still reckons the left-hander belongs in the middle order when Australia switch to the pink ball at the Gabba this week.
“If this wasn’t a pink-ball test match coming up at the Gabba, I would tend to agree and say, you know what, maybe it is time to throw him [Head] up there and you just launch into it from day one of a Test,” Finch told ESPN’s Around The Wicket. “But I just feel as though the fact that it is a pink-ball test, the impact that that brand new ball can have and the impact that Travis Head can have batting at No. 5 when the pink ball does go a bit soft and the game can sort of, the wicket can flatten out. I like him at five still, just to be that real explosive player through the middle order.”
Head’s promotion only happened because Usman Khawaja woke up with back spasms and missed his usual opening slot. He eventually batted at four, lasted six deliveries and gloved Brydon Carse to the keeper. The failure merely extended a lean spell: one century in his previous 44 Test innings. Even so, Finch and fellow former captain Michael Clarke expect the left-hander to reclaim his place, fitness permitting.
“I think he plays. I think if he’s fit, they give him another chance,” Clarke said. “I think a few days and Uzzie will be sweet. He hasn’t had this back problem that many times throughout his career, so I think he will be fit.”
The numbers suggest Clarke has a point. Khawaja, Brisbane-born and bred, is the leading run-scorer in day-night first-class cricket at the Gabba with 502 runs at 50.02. On home turf, against the pink ball he helped pioneer in domestic cricket, he tends to bank runs rather than crave them.
The other non-negotiable, in Clarke’s eyes, is Nathan Lyon. Australia’s premier off-spinner bowled just two overs in Perth and was omitted from an extreme green top in Jamaica earlier this year, yet both panellists want him back in Brisbane.
“He’s in for sure,” Clarke said. “He’s in my XI every Test match. Unless it’s an absolute raging green seamer. Like even Perth, the wicket certainly didn’t look that bad. I’m still picking a spinner in my team.”
Finch sees it the same way. “The impact that Nathan Lyon has in that side is huge. We saw him not selected for the Test in Jamaica…and they were extreme conditions. So Australia decided that they probably weren’t going to use a spinner at all. I can see from that point of view why it happened in Jamaica. At the Gabba, 100%, it should not ever be talked about, Nathan Lyon not being in an Australian XI.”
Australia’s selectors therefore appear to face two straightforward calls: Head back down to five, Khawaja back on the pine-coloured Gabba square, and Lyon reclaiming the pink Kookaburra he knows so well. If everyone wakes up with a healthy back on match morning, the XI that was pencilled in before Perth may yet walk out unchanged in Brisbane – just with batting slots shuffled back to the original script.
That leaves the tourists with more to ponder than the hosts. England were hammered by ten wickets in the series opener; now they confront a line-up that feels settled even when late injuries strike. The Gabba under lights can be unforgiving. Should an Australian batter falter early, Head will be prowling at five, waiting for the ball to soften just enough to launch another counter-attack. And somewhere in the outfield Lyon will already be spinning a new pink nut in his fingers, knowing, at least for this Test, his place is beyond debate.
