Australia's recent Test series against India has exposed the fragility of its top-order batting with their opening pairs struggling to put together major contributions. In the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, Australia paired regular opener Usman Khawaja with newcomers Nathan McSweeney and Sam Konstas.
Khawaja-McSweeney opened in the first three Tests and the pair fared poorly -- barely putting up any worthwhile partnerships. In the fourth, debutant Sam Konstas partnered with Khawaja and both of them struck half-centuries to give Australia a fine start.
The duo did not contribute a lot in the fifth Test with Khawaja making 2 and 41 and Konstas contributing 23 and 22 runs respectively. Questions were being asked whether Australia should persist with this combination in the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka at Galle.
But on Tuesday, Australia captain Steve Smith confirmed that Travis Head will replace Sam Konstas to partner Khawaja at the top of Australia's batting order for the first Test starting on Wednesday (Jan 29).
Though Konstas impressed in his first two Tests, Head's efforts while filling in for injured opener David Warner in the final two Tests of Australia's most recent subcontinent tour to India in 2023 won him an opener's spot.
Travis will go to the top, outside of that I think it will be pretty stable. I don't see it being a great deal of change from that. The selectors liked what they saw in India when he (Head) had that opportunity. He got after the new ball, scored quickly, and put the pressure on them straight away so I guess similar thinking here.
Australia is yet to decide who will fill the breach caused by Travis Head's promotion to the top. They will take a final call on the playing XI as late as possible.
We'd love to name a team as early as possible but things can change really quickly in this part of the world. So we won't name a team yet, we'll wait and see what we get and probably the morning of the game go from there. The sun hasn't been out very much lately so we'll have another look at the wicket and then name the team at the toss.
Konstas along with McSweeney and Josh Inglis are in contention and Smith said they will take a late call on this after taking a final look at the wicket.
Smith said it would be a good experience for the 19-year-old Konstas even if he does not figure in the middle order. Konstas had impressed the selectors with an audacious attack on Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
He's going to have a lot of practice if he doesn't play, which in itself is great for development. I only have to think back to 2013 (in India) when I didn't play the first two Tests and just the amount of balls I was hitting in the nets and the skills I was able to develop from facing loads of net bowlers and things like that. So whether he plays or not, I think it's going to be a wonderful experience for him.
Australia also looks set to bring in left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann, who has recently recovered from a fractured right thumb and has got the go-ahead from the medics. Kuhnemann looks set to play his first Test since the 2023 India tour.
