The banter between former England captain Michael Vaughan and former India opener Wasim Jaffer has kicked off once again with India currently facing off against Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final at the Kennington Oval in London. Rohit Sharma’s side were at the receiving end of Aussie batters on the opening day on Wednesday as Travis Head smashed 146 and Steve Smith chipped in with an unbeaten 95 to power Pat Cummins-led side to 327 for 3 after India won the toss and elected to bowl first.


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

At the end of the day’s play, Jaffer praised centurion Head for his brilliant knock, tweeting, “First Test ton away from home and what a time to do it! Well played Travis Head”. To which Vaughan replied, “Afternoon Wasim” with a thumbs up emoji, trying to troll Jaffer after India’s poor show in the field.



The former India opener came up with a fitting reply the next morning asking Vaughan where was his ‘blue tick’ on Twitter, writing, “Evening Michael If that's really you #WheresYourBlueTick #WTCFinal”.



Jaffer then went on to slam the Indian bowlers, saying, “Partnerships are bound to happen but you still have to restrict the scoring by bowling tight lines. A wicketless session doesn't hurt as much when it's gone for 90-100 runs and not 147 which Ind gave in the final session yesterday. Goes without saying Ashwin was missed”.



Meanwhile, Head’s counter attacking 146 not out off 156 balls put Australia in a commanding position after day one of the World Test Championship final against India on Wednesday. He shared an unbeaten 251-run stand with Smith who is five runs shy of a hundred.


“I’ve always said I do really enjoy batting with Steve because of how much attention he receives. He’s one of the best players in the world, probably our best player,” said Head.


“He’s our best batter, he’s unbelievable in these conditions, and he receives so much attention from opposition in terms of plans and how difficult he is to bowl to, so I’ve always said going out to bat with him, it feels like you're in the shadow of that, you can sort of stay under the radar and go about your business,” he said.


Head hammered 22 fours and the only six of the game so far for his first century outside Australia. The southpaw said his current frame of mind and the technical changes he made to his batting after 2019 has contributed to his impressive run.