Head can't wait for hometown Test

Travis Head is aware – upon some reflections, painfully so – of the behavioural changes seen in Adelaide Oval's Test match pitches over the past decade or more.

Head was few weeks shy of his 13th birthday when he made the 40-kilometre trip from his home town of Gawler, the gateway to the Barossa Valley beyond Adelaide's northern fringe, to take in the famous 2006-07 Ashes contest on the Oval's traditionally bowler-unfriendly deck.

At that stage, the young left-hander was still working out whether he wanted to be a specialist batter, leg-spin bowler or wicketkeeper, but he was in no doubt on that weekend he wanted to witness his boyhood hero, Ricky Ponting, perform extraordinary deeds as Australia captain.

Instead, he sat through two days of England at the crease, as Paul Collingwood (206) and then Kevin Pietersen (158) carried their team's first innings to 6(dec)-551 before the tourists somehow contrived to lose the match.

By which time the cricket-crazy adolescent was back in the classroom.

Nostalgics then feared Adelaide would be rendered even less welcoming to seamers and spinners alike when that wicket block was dug up in 2013, as part of the historic ground's redevelopment into a multi-purpose entertainment that included the installation of drop-in pitches.

Yet that transition has yielded relief rather than repetitive strain injury for bowlers.

Average first innings totals in the five years since the pre-fabricated Test pitches were first lowered into place are 344, compared to 422 on the in-situ Adelaide wicket block over the preceding decade.

That shift can be largely attributed to the altered preparation of pitches for day-night Tests since 2015-16, with curator Damian Hough leaving additional grass on the surface to help cushion the less resilient pink ball against excess wear and tear.

But Head was also among the Adelaide Oval crowd as the previous Australia-India Test in 2014-15 – the most recent daytime Test at the ground – reached its emotional conclusion when his close friend Nathan Lyon spun the home team to victory on a gripping final day.

And as South Australia's incumbent captain, Head expects the pitch for the upcoming Test to behave similarly to those employed in three Sheffield Shield matches so far this summer, in which seam, spin and bat have all dominated at various times.

"In the Shield games it's been … a bit of a new-ball wicket, but the batters have got ‘in' once the ball's got a bit older and been able to score runs," Head said today as Australia's 14-man Test squad assembled in Adelaide ahead of Thursday's Domain Series opener.

"And it's spun, so I think it's done everything really well (and) I think it will be a good wicket all round.

"With the hot weather (35C forecast for Thursday), hopefully it's got a lot of pace in it.

"I know Houghy is trying to get it quicker each time, and I think as the Shield season's gone on here the wickets have become quicker.

"(Fourth innings) have been successful (for batters), but there's been a bit of rough for spin, so I think with five days Lyno (Lyon) will come into the game."

As Head noted today, the influence of spin has not been restricted to the back-end of games when the tweakers traditionally find more purchase and less reliable bounce on a heavily trafficked surface.

On the opening day of SA's second Shield game of this summer, teenage leg spinner Lloyd Pope bamboozled reigning Shield champions Queensland to claim 7-87 – the first seven-wicket haul by a first-class spinner in Adelaide since Lyon's match-winning effort four years ago.

"With a little bit of extra grass, and the thatchiness of the grass, that brings spin into play and it's spun from day one in the Shield games," Head said today.

"All round, I think Houghy's done an amazing job to (change) the traditional Adelaide Oval from being flat for three or four days and then spin coming into it.

"I think he's got the perfect combination, the Shield games here have been fantastic to play in."

In the five and a half summers since the pitch switch was made, only Head's SA teammate Tom Cooper has scored more first-class runs at Adelaide Oval.

That should ensure South Australia has its first home-grown, locally based representative in an Adelaide Test since Jason Gillespie and Darren Lehmann turned out in the second match against New Zealand in November, 2004.

When Head was aged 10, and his competitive focus was trained on backyard battles with his brother, Ryan, at their family home.

In the intervening 14 years, SA could lay claim to one Test representative (Ryan Harris) and another who played for the state having relocated from elsewhere (Lyon), but both those players won Baggy Green Caps after moving from Adelaide to more verdant pastures – Brisbane and Sydney respectively.

During that time, Head eschewed his adolescent interests in Australian rules football and soccer to focus on cricket, which carried him under-age representation with SA and first-grade Premier Cricket at age 15, and then Australia under-19 selection.

In 2015 he became SA's youngest Sheffield Shield captain (at 21 years and 40 days), and has since played more than 50 times for Australia in ODIs and T20 Internationals as well as leading the Adelaide Strikers to their maiden KFC Big Bash League title last summer.

But come Thursday he is set to realise the dream that first took meaningful shape during those testing hours among the Adelaide Oval crowd in 2006 as Collingwood and Pietersen ground Australia's star-studded bowling attack into the rich, black soil of the original wicket block.

"I caught up with a few mates from Gawler last night, took them out to dinner and I know they're all coming down to watch and they're very excited," Head said of his impending first Test on home turf.

"I wanted to play Test cricket and I've had that opportunity (during the recent series against Pakistan in the UAE), and now I want to have that experience playing in Australia.

"I'm pretty lucky that the first one is in Adelaide."There's nothing better than playing in your home town, with home support.

"I've had that opportunity with Australia (in ODIs and T20Is) and Big Bash to play in front of big crowds.

"It's pretty special."

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: First Test, Adelaide Oval

Dec 14-18: Second Test, Perth Stadium

Dec 26-30: Third Test, MCG

Jan 3-7: Fourth Test, SCG

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Chris Tremain

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar