Two of Australia's modern-day stalwarts, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne are at the threshold of major Test milestones as Australia prepare to take on the West Indies at the Adelaide Oval in the first game of the two-match Test series starting Wednesday (January 17).
Labuschagne who bats at the No. three slot for the Aussies is four shy of completing 4000 Test runs. The 29-year-old batter has aggregated 3996 runs in 82 innings of the 46 Tests that he has played already at a spectacular batting average of 52.57.
He can surpass David Warner to become the fifth-fastest player to scale the peak. Sir Donald Bradman (48 innings), Matthew Hayden (77 innings), Neil Harvey (80 innings) and Steven Smith (80 innings) are three of the fastest Aussies to take the minimum innings to score 4000 Test runs.
On the other hand, Head is also on the cusp of a huge Test record. Head needs to score 15 more runs to complete 3000 runs in the longest format of the game. The southpaw is the backbone of Australia's middle-order and played a major hand in helping his team win its maiden World Test Championship (WTC) title.
Head had scored a magnificent century (163 off 174 balls) in the summit clash of the WTC 2021-23 final against India at The Oval which was enough to push the Indian side on the backfoot. He averages 43.26 with the willow in red-ball cricket and would like to improve on the same during the series against the Windies.
Australia's Playing XI:
Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
West Indies' Playing XI:
Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Kirk McKenzie, Alick Athanaze, Kavem Hodge, Justin Greaves, Joshua Da Silva (wk), Gudakesh Motie, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Kemar Roach
