Travis Head provided a major breakthrough for Australia during the fourth Test match against Australia but it was his celebration that caused a massive uproar on social media. Head took the wicket of Rishabh Pant that paved the way for his team’s victory on Monday and his celebration left a lot of people confused. Head pointed one fighter into his other hand which was shaped like a circle and it was perceived as ‘obscene’ by several social media users. However, Channel 7’s James Brayshaw clear the air around the celebration.
This is not a gentleman game anymore!
Shameless Travis Head!
— Siddharth Mathur (@TheSidMathur) December 30, 2024
“Now, great people in the back have said after he took 4-10 within 17 balls in Sri Lanka in 2022 he was quoted as saying, ‘I had to put the digit on ice’,” Brayshaw said. “So that was the celebration. He said ‘I just got him and I’m putting it back on ice’.”
And this is all right @ICC @CricketAus ??
How can you accept such obscene gesture anywhere, let alone on the field?#TravisHead pic.twitter.com/SczrX0SGcL
— THESingh (@IamVishnu_Singh) December 30, 2024
Australia captain Pat Cummins also justified Head’s celebration at the press conference.
“I can explain that. His finger’s are so hot, he needs to put it in a cup of ice. Yeah, that’s what it is. That’s normally the running joke. He also took a wicket somewhere where goes straight to the fridge, grabs a bucket of ice, puts his fingers in and just walks in front of Lyno (Nathan Lyon). Just like that. It’s very funny,” Cummins revealed.
India slumped to a demoralising 184-run loss to Australia in the fourth Test here on Monday with contemporary greats Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli failing to come good yet again, signalling that their walk towards the exit door is not too far.
Chasing a near improbable target of 340, both Rohit (9 off 40 balls) and Kohli (5) failed to battle their technical frailties and mental cobwebs as India lost seven wickets for 34 runs in just 20.4 overs in the final session to be all out for 155 in 79.1 overs.
Australian captain Pat Cummins (3/28 in 18 overs) was superb as usual and Scott Boland was also magnificent (3/39 in 16 overs) in his every spell.
Nathan Lyon (2/37 in 20.1 overs) took advantage of variable bounce while Mitchell Starc (1/25 in 16 overs) got the prized scalp of Kohli.
This was after an 88-run fourth-wicket stand between Yashasvi Jasiwal and Rishabh Pant.
“Pretty disappointing. We wanted to fight but we could not do it,” a dejected Rohit said in the post-match presentation.
“We tried everything but they fought hard. We did not grab our chances,” he conceded.
Australia now lead the series 2-1 and unless India draw level in Sydney, a third successive World Test Championship final could become a distant dream.
Save Jaiswal (84, 208 balls), whose controversial caught-behind in which the third umpire overruled technology to adjudge him out, none of the other batters performed well enough to save the team.
(With PTI inputs)
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