Head backs bowlers to surprise England

Australia batsman Travis Head is confident a new-look bowling attack will have the “firepower” to trouble England in an upcoming one-day international series.

Head made a century as Australia completed their preparations with a 101-run win over Middlesex at Lord’s on Saturday.

Despite his 106, Australia were held to a total of 283 for six. It was the second time in two warm-up games they had failed to reach the benchmark score of 300, having made 277 for nine against Sussex at Hove in their tour-opener on Thursday.

But they still beat Sussex by 57 runs and the bowlers were even more dominant against Middlesex, who slumped to 182 all out with nine overs to spare.

The tourists will likely need to raise their game when a fivematch series with England starts across London at The Oval on Wednesday but Head was unconcerned by their recent failure to break the 300 barrier.

“It depends, if we bowl the way we have... We’ll find that out pretty quickly, what’s a good score,” Head told reporters.

“The last two games have been good enough. We were under the pump at Hove but we were pretty clinical in the way we went about it here.”

The 24-year-old opened the batting on Saturday, with Australia having arrived in England without regular opener David Warner and former captain Steve Smith.

Australia are also without Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood for this white-ball only tour.

LONDON: The last two games have been good enough. We were under the pump at Hove but we were pretty clinical in the way we went about it. TRAVIS HEAD, Australia batsman