Australia head coach Andrew McDonald will consider reshuffling his batting order again in the future following Travis Head’s match-winning century in the first Test in Perth.
With regular opener Usman Khawaja struggling with back spasms and the hosts tasked with chasing 205 on a difficult pitch, Head was promoted to the top of the order for the second innings. He blasted 123 off 83 balls as Australia won by eight wickets inside two days.
They were also forced to experiment with their batting line-up in the first innings, with Marnus Labuschagne stepping in to open alongside debutant Jake Weatherald as Khawaja had spent too much time off the field during England’s innings.
Australia headed into the Ashes with question marks surrounding their batting, particularly their struggle to find a settled opening pair since David Warner’s retirement in January 2024, but following Head’s heroics, McDonald says he isn’t averse to borrowing from limited-overs cricket and adopting a flexible batting order depending on the match situation and conditions.
“We’ve hypothesised around a middle order going up to the top order in the second innings if [the pitch] happened to flatten out, particularly if we need quick runs and the wicket was going to deteriorate,” McDonald said.
“You do it in one-day cricket. You front-end some of your innings when you know the back-end will be difficult to chase down the runs.
“Then there’s other times in one-day cricket where it’s difficult up front and you back-end your innings, and you put all your power at the back-end.
“Can that transition into Test cricket? Are people ready for that? It’s a conversation that we have had.
“We’ve had a conversation around Travis opening the batting for a long period of time … now that it’s out there, happy to talk about it. Will we do it if it presents at the right time? Potentially.”