Ashes 2023: Travis Head batted like Ben Stokes: Michael Vaughan hails Australian batter

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan lauded Australian batter Travis Head, stating he batted like Ben Stokes. Head scored a crucial knock of 77 in Australia’s second innings of the third Test match at Leeds, Headingley on Saturday.

In fact, Australia was reeling at 139-6 in the second dig but Travis Head batted like himself and added crucial runs while batting with the tail. Head scored seven fours and three sixes in his blistering knock.

Head added a crucial alliance of 41 runs with Todd Murphy for the ninth wicket and helped Australia post 224 runs on the board, giving England a target of 251 runs.

Head has been in terrific form recently and continued his dream run against the home team. In fact, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Marsh, and Marnus Labuschagne all got off to starts but none of them could go on to convert them into substantial scores.

“Travis Head batted like Ben Stokes just for a brief spell. Todd Murphy came there and hung around, that was a key partnership. Was it worth for England to pitch the ball up to Travis Head? Because the ball was swinging around. But they’ve gone for this short ball theory because they think they can get him out and keep him quiet,” Vaughan told Cricbuzz at the end of Day 3’s play.

Meanwhile, Travis Head scored 39 runs in the first innings and also added a crucial alliance of 155 runs with Mitchell Marsh.

Head has scored 266 runs in three Ashes Test matches at an average of 44.33 and a strike rate of 73.48.

Vaughan feels the short ball strategy was working well against Travis Head until Todd Murphy came to the crease. After the eighth wicket fell, Head decided to take the attack against England bowlers and scored 43 runs off just 30 balls.

“It wasn’t really until Todd Murphy arrived that he really started to hit the boundaries. So it ( short ball theory) was working till that stage,” said Vaughan.

England need 224 runs on the final day to win the third Test match, with 10 wickets in hand.