Australia’s team selection for the opening Test against India, which began on Thursday, left their own countrymen bewildered. The visitors left out middle-order batter Travis Head, who has been in rich form, and included Peter Handscomb instead.

Why? It appears the decision was made just because Head is a left-handed batter. The pre-match talk of the Nagpur pitch being prepared to unsettle the visiting left-handed batters seems to have played on the Australian minds.

The choice of the XI did not amuse former Australian stalwarts Steve Waugh and Matthew Hayden.

“I can’t believe it (Head’s axing). Mark Waugh actually was right next to him, and nor could Travis Head in that brief conversation,” Hayden was quoted as saying on Fox Cricket.“For me, he was player of the summer. Totally different conditions I know in Brisbane at the Gabba but his 90 in Brisbane (against South Africa) was just so damn good. He made it like it was flat and it wasn’t. It was an absolute raging green top. But his mindset and his ability to be able to score quickly … I’m just speechless,” added Hayden.

Captain Rohit Sharma during his 56 not out on Day I of the first India-Australia Test in Nagpur on Thursday. PTI photo

Head, the 2021-22 Ashes ‘Player of the Series’, got a 92 in the first Test against South Africa at the Gabba, which helped the hosts win by six wickets in December last year. He again scored a half-century in the second Test at MCG, which Australia won, and another quick-fire 70 in the drawn third Test at Sydney last month.

Waugh, on Instagram, wrote: “Hard to believe we can drop the number 4 ranked test batsman in the world and probably our best batsman in the last 12 months plus he bowls better than average off spin – let’s wait and see - maybe the Aussie selectors are genius! #gamble #overanalysing? #waitandsee.”

Written with inputs from PTI