WTC Final: Ricky Ponting compares Travis Head to all-time great Adam Gilchrist

After the lefthander moved the momentum of the ICC World Test Championship Final towards his side with a magnificent century on the opening day in London Australian great Ricky Ponting is at ease comparing Travis Head to the modernday Adam Gilchrist in Australias XIOn an actionpacked day at The Oval when Australia dominated Head delivered his first Test century in England and the sixth of his career with a magnificent unbeaten 146 from just 156 deliveriesA compelling 251run unbroken partnership between Travis Head 146 not out and Steve Smith 95 not out was the highlight of the first day of the World Test Championship Final 2023 as Australia finished at a strong 327 for three at the end of the days playAlso Read WTC Final Travis Heads century puts Australia in strong position against India on opening dayWith his team in trouble at 763 the brash No 5 came to the crease but he produced a blow that made Ponting think of his former teammate GilchristHe probably is similar to Gilchrist In fact he is probably scoring quicker now than Gilly probably ever did His strike rate through this World Test Championship qualification period is 81 which is higher than anyone else in the world to have scored more than 500 runs Ponting told the ICCHis confidence is growing by the game his strike rate keeps going up he hits boundaries early on in his innings which puts pressure back on the bowlers which is what you want from your middle order players and his last two years have been quite remarkable he addedDuring his great Test career Gilchrist had a strike rate of 8195 and Head is on a similar trajectory after scoring at a similar rate during Australias World Test Championship campaignAs Head flayed the India attack to every part of the renowned south London venue on Wednesday he had similar tendencies to Gilchrist who was famed for attacking as soon as he went to the creaseEarly in his knock Head was brutal on anything overpitched dealing primarily in boundaries to rapidly shift the tide in Australias favour after Indias quicks made a respectable start to the matchPonting thinks that Indias pacers should have been patient and tried to stop Head from scoring so freely instead of committing a length error early on against HeadI think when he first comes in you need to execute perfectly to him It is no good trying to over attack him because if you bowl any bad ball he is going to put it away They will learn by the way they bowled to him in this first innings and they will definitely adjust in this second innings but sometimes it is too late Ponting saidAlso Read WTC Final Ponting Hayden feel India would have gained by playing AshwinThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever