Travis Head's love affair with Rohit Sharma's captaincy: Decoding his unusual ODI stats vs India

Travis Head and Rohit Sharma (Source:@iamubaidshah75/X.com)

Travis Head broke billions of Indian hearts on November 19, 2023 with his brilliant century in the final of the World Cup. It was a knock that put him among the most fearsome opponents for India and since then, whenever he has walked out to bat against India, it has triggered some extreme reactions from Indian fans.

In Test cricket, too, Travis Head has dashed India's hopes with a century in the WTC final. Overall, he has been pretty dominant against India, and thus his failure in the first ODI at Perth came as a pleasant surprise for the Indian fans. He could score just eight runs, and though Australia won the match comfortably, not seeing runs off the bat of Travis Head would have given relief to a lot of cricket fans in India.

Travis Head's dominance against Rohit Sharma's India

However, the failure has brought up an interesting trajectory of Travis Head's ODI record against India. The cricketer has openly confessed his love for Rohit Sharma's batting in the last few years. However, on the field, he has enjoyed batting against Rohit Sharma, the captain.

Travis Head has batted in 11 matches against India in ODIs and has scored his runs at an average of close to 40 and strike-rate of over 100. Out of those 11 matches, five matches are under Rohit's India, and it is in these matches that Travis Head has unleashed his wrath on the Men in Blue.

Travis Head under Rohit's captaincy vs other Indian captains

Travis Head has scored one century and a fifty against India, and both of those knocks came when Rohit was leading India. In contrast, he has struggled against India in ODIs when Rohit has not been captain and the highest score is just 42 in six innings.

The average is just 21.17 for Travis Head under when he plays under other Indian captains, while it is 66.25 against Rohit Sharma's captaincy. Travis Head has also been a lot more aggressive when he has played against Rohit Sharma's India in ODIs, which implies a unique connection.

Overall, Travis Head has been in great form in ODIs in the last few years. He has reinvented his game across all formats and can be a dangerous prospect in the upcoming matches of the ODI series. However, this unusual run-scoring pattern is good news for India, and Gill would be hoping to keep him quiet in his first series as ODI captain.

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