"That's where we are feeding too many balls" - Cheteshwar Pujara criticizes India's bowling plans to Travis Head on Day 2 of 3rd BGT 2024-25 Test

Senior batter Cheteshwar Pujara has criticized India's bowling tactics to Travis Head on Day 2 of the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 Test in Brisbane on Sunday, December 15. According to Pujara, the visitors haven'y learnt from their mistakes in Adelaide and kept feeding balls outside the off stump to the left-hander.

Head notched up his second consecutive century in the ongoing series on Sunday at The Gabba. Having scored 140 off 141 in the pink-ball Test in Adelaide, the left-hander slammed 152 off 160 in Brisbane in the ongoing Test. Resuming their first innings on 28-0, Australia went to stumps at 405-7 as Head and Steven Smith (101) added 241 for the fourth wicket to lift the hosts from 75-3.

Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Pujara urged India's bowlers to learn from their mistakes and be patient while bowling to Head:

"Our planning hasn't been great against Travis Head. I know he has been batting well. He's in great form - the way he is timing the ball. But last game, we didn't bowl enough short balls. This game we did, but if you look at his scoring areas, which is outside off stump, that's where we are feeding too many balls. That's where we are bowling a lot more."

Pujara added that India's bowlers must look to keep the ball at the stumps and cut down his off-side scoring options. He elaborated:

"I said this even in the last game that you need to bowl in the stumps. We need to attack his off stump, middle stump. I would even say that if you end up bowling on leg stump, that is still fine. Have four fielders on the leg side and have five fielders on the off side, but don't allow him to score on the off side.

"He walks in after 30 overs when the ball is little soft. But, we need to learn to be a little more patient, bowl in that channel and make him drive a bit more," Pujara added.

Head struck 18 fours in his knock of 152, while Smith hit 12 fours in his 190-ball innings to frustrate India. For the visitors, Jasprit Bumrah claimed 5-72 in 25 overs.

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Travis Head's Test record against India

It's no secret that Head (30) enjoys batting against India across formats. Looking at his Test numbers against India, the left-hander has scored 1,107 runs in 22 innings at an average of 52.71, with three hundreds and four fifties.

Before his ton in Adelaide, he scored 89 in the second innings in Perth. In June 2023, the batter scored 163 in the World Test Championship final against India at The Oval.