Head, Labuschagne prime for 2027 as India reach Test final

Ahmedabad: Grimly determined but not without flourish, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne put down a marker for Australia’s next tour here in 2027, as India’s World Test Championship final place was confirmed by New Zealand.

Head (90), Labuschagne (63 not out) and captain Steve Smith took Australia to 2-175 and 84 runs in credit when handshakes were exchanged at a near empty Narendra Modi Stadium.

In doing so, they eased any concerns about forcing a restricted Usman Khawaja to bat with the puzzling lower leg ailment that forced him off the field on day four.

Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head staved off any chance of defeat.Credit:AP

Aged 29 and 28 respectively, Head and Labuschagne are likely to be joined by first innings centurion Cameron Green as the bulwarks of Australia’s batting on their next tour to India four years from now, and will take plenty of lessons from this trip.

India’s 2-1 Border-Gavaskar series win, reprising their margin in each of the previous three series, means that historians must go back to the West Indies’ dominant era to find a longer sequence of supremacy over Australia: the Caribbean side won five in a row between 1984 and 1993.

The Black Caps’ thrilling, last-ball victory over Sri Lanka in Christchurch made for much more arresting theatre than Head and Labuschagne’s calm defusing of India’s spin and pace attack on a surface that maintained its friendliness for batting to the last.

But it was still a noteworthy effort by Head in particular. Falling just short of a first Test hundred overseas, he offered another substantial reminder of quality after missing out on the first match of the series.

As impressive as Head’s clear-headed aggression has been, he also left a mark with calm and sturdy defensive play when the moment required; not least on the fourth evening of this match, or in the early overs of a small chase in Indore.

Labuschagne, meanwhile, soaked up many more deliveries in defence, as he tried to atone for a series in which he had made plenty of starts without once going on to a match-defining score.

The tourists were concerned enough about their capacity to bat through the day against Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and company to have Khawaja testing his leg and freedom of movement in the nets before play, watched by head coach Andrew McDonald.

Due to his time off the field, Khawaja would not have been permitted to bat until after the lunch interval, but as it was, Head and Labuschagne forged through the morning and afternoon without too many alarms.

It had looked from quite early on as though the Australians needed only to concentrate hard and play straight to force a draw, as the night watcher Matt Kuhnemann was able to negotiate 35 balls before he was given lbw to Ashwin.

Kuhnemann, suspecting the ball was sliding past leg stump, paused to ponder a review with Head, before it was decided that Australia’s No. 11 was not entitled to try one. As it turned out, he should have – the ball was indeed fading down leg.

Travis Head fell 10 short of a first Test hundred overseas.Credit:AP

Labuschagne walked in to join Head for the same union that had accrued the 76 testy runs required to win the third Test a week ago, in vastly more difficult conditions than these.

Like Khawaja, Green and Virat Kohli, Head and Labuschagne found that they were quite safe in trusting their defences, and there was no undue haste to reel in the 91-run first innings deficit and thus force India to bat again.

Labuschagne advanced a couple of times to flick cleanly over mid-on, while Head interspersed some trademark cut shots with straight sixes that recalled some of his most decisive work in Indore.

The news of New Zealand’s win in Christchurch, knocking out Sri Lanka in the process, arrived soon after the afternoon resumption, not that it had looked like India would be likely to conjure a rush of wickets in any case.

For the most part, Ashwin and Jadeja looked a couple of tired operators after their exertions in early matches and innings.

Given some of his longest bowling stints of the series, meanwhile, Axar Patel was able to find a rough patch from which to bowl Head through the gate as the left-hander sought to drive through the covers. It was just his third wicket of the series.

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