Follow UsDavid Warner is on the final legs of his Test career and is all set for a swansong following the Test series against Pakistan. That would vacate a position at the top, with the likes of Cameron Bancroft, Matthew Renshaw and Marcus Harris being front-runners.
Travis Head, who has taken to ODI opening like a duck to water, is another name that is being thrown at in order to open in red-ball cricket, but the South Australian rules himself out of the contention. Head believes that opening in Test cricket is a specialist job and selectors are happy with him batting in the middle-order.
"[Selectors are] happy with me in the middle order," Travis Head told reporters in Perth ahead of the first Test against Pakistan starting on Thursday.
"I think [opening] it's a specialist job. The guys who have been waiting to get into the team for a while deserve the first crack at it. But the conversations are ongoing with everyone...only one for me is [opening in] the subcontinent. I don't see myself moving around too much in the future."
Head was a part of the Australian team that took on Suryakumar Yadav-led India in the five-match T20I series following the conclusion of the World Cup. In three matches he participated in, he played solid cameos but failed to convert them into substantial scores. He will continue to have opportunities to cement his place in Australia's line-up at next year's T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and USA, but he understands that he is not a lock-in yet.
"I'm not a lock for that T20 World Cup, so I wanted to present and try to perform and try and get myself in that team. We felt like that was the greater opportunity to play the three T20s [than Shield]. We haven't got many T20 opportunities coming up over the next little bit, so it was sort of that last chance to press my claims to make sure that I'm in the mix."