Paine's Insights into Travis Head's Underperformance under Justin Langer: 'The Pressure to Please...'

Former Australia Test captain Tim Paine recently discussed the contrasting viewpoints of Travis Head and former coach Justin Langer, which hindered the batsman's performance in the past. Paine revealed that Langer emphasized improving Head's defensive skills, while Head himself craved more freedom to express himself through his batting. This difference in opinion ultimately affected Head's ability to thrive on the field during that period.

Justin Langer, who took over the charge of the Australian team during tough times post sandpaper scandal, resigned from his position after winning the Ashes in 2021/22. There were reports of disagreements and rift between the players and coach during his tenure. Meanwhile, since the start of 2022, Head has become a pivotal part of Australia's Test team set-up as he also gets backing from skipper Pat Cummins and head coach Andrew McDonald to play his natural game in the middle.

After Head's match-winning knock against India in Adelaide, Paine revealed that there were some differences of opinion between the left-handed batter and Langer, which impacted his performance.

"I don't think either of them will mind me saying this, but I think he and JL used to have a real difference of opinion," Paine said on SEN Breakfast.

Paine shared the details about how Langer and his coaching staff wanted Head to work on his defence, and the batter also tried to do to impress the coach, but things were not working out for him.

"You've got Test greats in commentary and you've got a Test great (Langer) that's coaching and Graeme Hick at the time who'd scored 101 First Class hundreds as his batting coach (offering advice). They were trying really hard for him to work on his defence and it wasn't the way he wanted to go about it, but he was a young Test player who was trying to impress and trying to stay in the team, so he was trying to please a bit of everyone," he added.

The swashbuckling batter has smashed 2012 runs in 29 Tests since the start of 2022 at an average of 43.73, including five centuries.

Paine asserted that playing his natural game has helped Head flourish in recent times.

"I think that's been the major shift in his output because he is sticking true to the way he wants to play," he added.

The former Aussie skipper admitted that Head's aggressive approach makes him a match-winner, but it doesn't guarantee runs in every match, and he said he will also have some lean patches.

"At times he's going to fail and at times he's gonna have lean patches, but he's going to be super aggressive, he's going to play his shots and he's going to try and be a match winner and we're just seeing him blossom at the moment in all formats of the game," he concluded.