Travis Head has pushed back against calls to regenerate the Test team, arguing Australia should maintain their recent policy to reinforce a "strong team" with seasoned players from domestic ranks, and not radically alter things due to one "shithouse day" that cost them the second Test against South Africa.
Following his rearguard century, featuring a long partnership with nightwatchman Scott Boland, Head admitted the team had identified an underperforming batting order as an issue to be addressed before this series, but could not put his finger on why they had not managed to pass 400 in an innings since January last year, 10 Test matches ago.
Head stopped short of batting for the retention of Nic Maddinson or Marnus Labuschagne in the top three, only saying he would support them as teammates. He identified with Labuschagne's struggles to make big scores, and stressed that Maddinson's qualities as a person would not be lost because of a few low scores in his Test comeback.
But Head's most striking message was that strong teams should be reinforced with senior players while weaker teams rebuild, adamant that Australia must be considered the former. "The times that you've seen strong Australian cricket teams, you've seen older guys come in because I think just it's a byproduct of how strong the Test team is," he said. "It's great that we've got a strong Test team. It's great that that means that we know that our next guys in are hardened first-class cricketers."
"If you look at the guys that you guys talk about, it's the Kurtis Pattersons of the world, the Peter Handscombs. I'm going to miss people, but guys that have played a lot of first-class cricket. Then you skip a generation, you go to Sam Konstas and the [Ollie] Peakes and the [Campbell] Kellaways. It's where does this team fit, and where can it fit, and where can we continue to be where we want to be, which is Test championship finals or contenders, and what's that person going to bring?"
Maddinson and all-rounder Beau Webster are expected to come under severe pressure for their places this week, but Head said that fans and commentators should take a breath and not throw out a bunch of names because of what transpired in Gqeberha. "Next week might look different to this week, and it will purely be down to winning a game of cricket," he said.
Nevertheless, Head joined captain Pat Cummins in accepting that batting performances had to improve if the team was to succeed in Cape Town. "It's difficult putting the finger on things," he said. "I think we've spoken as a group going into the series that we've sort of had one individual each time, and they've always been different individuals, and we sort of haven't been able to get that collective batting day that we would desire as a team."
Head said it was important to keep the series ledger in perspective and not let the St George's Park performance "eat away" at the team. "I think it's pretty clear on what we got wrong," he said. "We had a pretty shithouse day. As simple as that. If we don't get bowled out for 99, more than likely the Test goes to a draw. It's pretty obvious what we did poorly."