Australia opener Travis Head lit up the opening T20I against England through some explosive striking of the ball at The Rose Bowl, Southampton on Thursday. The southpaw scored a 23-ball 59 with the help of 8 fours and 4 sixes. During his sensational knock, Head smashed England pacer Sam Curran for 30 runs in an over to equal a record held by Ricky Ponting, Mitchell Marsh, and Dan Christian. Head has joined them as the batters scoring most runs in an over in T20Is.

Ponting achieved the feat against New Zealand in 2005, while Cristian equalled it vs Bangladesh in 2021. Marsh reached the milestone against Scotland this year before Head too joined the list.

Head credited his consistent run in the shortest format to him being in really good positions to hit the ball.

At Southampton, he raced to a 19-ball fifty, his fourth fifty-plus score this year in T20Is. Last week, Head also hit a 25-ball 80 against Scotland last week, where he got his fifty in just 17 balls.

“If they present opportunities to score, I’m trying to be present and ready to go and really still to access all the ground, which I felt like I did. I haven’t played a lot of T20 cricket until the last 12 months.”

“Working on my game, a lot comes down to the technique and what I’m trying to achieve out of my swing. So I feel like I’m in really good positions to hit the ball,” Head was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

Head, the top-ranked men’s T20I batter, was also involved in an opening partnership of 86 runs with Matthew Short, who hit 41 off just 26 balls. It is also Australia’s second highest score in the power-play, after hitting 113 runs in the six-over period against Scotland at Edinburgh last week.

“The mantra at the top has stayed the same with some different personnel throughout, but I’ve built pretty relationships with all the guys and enjoy batting with all of them (David Warner, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Short and Steve Smith).

“We complement each other in different ways; I thought ‘Shorty’ started exceptionally well with a matchup that he thought was right, and it gave me little bit extra time to get myself in and then was able to get away. So pleased with the way I was striking them, would have loved to have gone on with it, but I felt like we set pretty good platform for the boys behind us,” concluded Head.

(With IANS Inputs)