Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has likened Travis Head to his ex-teammate Adam Gilchrist ahead of the Border-Gavaskar series third Test match against India. Ponting made the comparison between the two left-handers for their similar aggressive batting style.

Gilchrist was known to take the attack to the opposition while batting in the middle order in Test matches whereas he did the same while opening in ODIs. Travis Head has done a similar job for Australia in the last few years as he is taking the opposition by its horns.

After scoring 89 runs in the second innings of the opening Test against India, Head scored a match-winning knock of 140 runs off just 141 balls in the first innings of the pink-ball Test at Adelaide.

The South Australian played a key role in helping Australia take a healthy lead of 157 runs and eventually team’s 10-wicket win.

“The obvious one is Gilly. The way that Head plays is in a very similar way to the way that Gilchrist played, albeit a couple of positions higher in the batting order. Gilly was a six or seven, and Travis is doing his damage at No.5. I love sitting back and watching him play. It’s quite refreshing to watch guys play that way. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, Travis is going to come out and play the same way, and I love that,” Ricky Ponting said on ICC Review.

Ponting lauded Head for standing up for the team in tricky situations of the big matches but feels it would be too early to call him a ‘great’.

“I don’t think you can call him a great just yet. That’s no knock on what he’s doing because what he’s doing has been spectacular. And a lot of the times, it’s been when his team’s needed him the most. Think about the World Cup semi-final, the World Cup final, World Test Championship, Ashes in Australia a couple of years ago. Big moments are when Travis has found a way to stand up,” he said in the same interaction.

The third Test match between India and Australia will be played at the Gabba, Brisbane from December 14.