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How to tune into Sport NationPlan aHead: Broad’s advice for England
Nicholas Quinlan • November 25th, 2025 8:54 am
Fast bowling great Stuart Broad believes England needs to limit the number of consecutive balls Travis Head faces to reduce his impact against their bowlers.
The South Australian, who opened the batting, delivered one of the best innings of his career when crunching 123 runs of 83 balls in Perth.
Head's swashbuckling knock helped Australia arrive at their target of 205 runs within the space of a session to take a 1-0 lead in The Ashes.
Having reflected on the performance of the two sides, the 167-Test Broad admitted that Head’s innings had caught England captain Ben Stokes off guard.
“It’s the first time that I’ve seen Ben Stokes not have a tactical answer on the pitch,” Broad said on SEN Cricket's The Day After show.
“And that means full credit to what he (Travis Head) was able to do.
“When I reflect on what England could have done, it came as a shock.
“They’ve designed their mindset to Travis Head coming in at No.5. He opens the batting because Usman Khawaja has a back spasm.
“So, the plan is already gone. You’ve now got a new ball. ‘Okay, what’s the plan to Travis Head with a brand new ball? We’ve not even discussed this leading into this series’, so you’re a little bit scrambled.”
While England unprepared for the potential of Head opening the batting in the second dig, they will likely begin developing a plan for him if he reprises the role for the second Test in Brisbane.
And Broad believes that England could have tried to put the pressure back on Head by trying to limit the amount of balls he faced, which could be something they look to do for next week’s Day/Night Test.
“What they could have done when Travis Head was really going, then you have to use your awareness to say, ‘Let’s get him off strike, let’s let him to face one ball an over and it’s a clip off his hip and he gets one and you don’t let him face four, five balls an over and he hits a boundary in those’”, he added.
“And crucially, when you get him off strike, Marnus Labuschagne comes down to the facing end, you bowl dots at him and create pressure on him.
“Suddenly, you do that for forty minutes, and Travis Head gets bored of getting a single and tries something outrageous and might get out.
“That’s what England could have done a bit better. Yes, we like to see this aggressive play, and it’s always looking at the positive option.
“But sometimes, the positive option is to take the bite out of what’s going on just to try and make Travis Head do something different.
“You can’t just let him keep flaying it for hours on end and ends up with 120-odd off 80-odd balls.
“I think England could have done that a bit differently.”
The second Test will take place on December 4 at the Gabba and SEN will be there LIVE to bring you all the action.
