Phil Salt wants England to show more precision in bowling against Travis Head

Phil Salt has urged England to be “very, very precise” when bowling to Travis Head after the Australian opener helped his side to victory in the first of three T20s.

Head, player of the match in both last year’s World Test Championship final and the 50-over World Cup final, is the highest-ranked batsman in the T20s and underlined his reasons for this with a swashbuckling half-century.

England had to play catch-up after Head scored 59 runs from 23 balls, including a 30-run over from Sam Curran to back up Australia’s 179 runs for a 28-run victory at the Utilita Bowl.

Salt, who stepped in as captain and wicket-keeper for the injured Jos Buttler as part of a revamp of England’s white-ball team, warned England that they need to get their lines and lengths on Head right in the final two T20s.

“He’s had two great years,” Salt said. “It’s always a challenge to knock someone out who’s running that well.”

“I think it depends on which line he hits the ball from. You have to be very, very precise when you throw to him, he’s not very conventional. That makes it very difficult to throw to him.”

Head holed the last ball of the powerplay and Australia were 86-1 after a quick attack before England’s spinners, led by Adil Rashid, fended off the onslaught.

Rashid conceded a single boundary at 1-23 and Liam Livingstone took advantage of the Australian batters’ reluctance to attack the Yorkshireman to take three wickets, including two in two balls.

Back-to-back yorkers from Jofra Archer and one from Saqib Mahmood made it a team hat-trick as Australia’s innings fell apart, losing their last eight wickets for 61 runs and being all out in 19.3 overs.

While Salt believes Australia’s total was within reach, England never got going. Livingstone top-scored with 37 off 27 balls and Salt was the only other batsman to reach 20.

“They finished with a result we thought was very achievable,” Salt said. “But we kept losing wickets at inopportune times. We lacked partnerships with real depth to get us over the line.”

There was a suspicion that England were at least one batsman short on the chilly evening, with Curran, recently named Most Valuable Player at The Hundred, batting at sixth despite a meagre T20 average of 13.18.

“You’re not happy with the result if you don’t make it across the finish line,” Salt added. “I think Sam has everything it takes to be a world-class all-rounder and that’s what he is at the moment.”

“There are all sorts of paths you can take if you don’t make it across the finish line, but we’re very happy with the team we have.”

England were looking to put an end to a miserable past 12 months that saw them miss both World Cups with the white ball, leading to the sacking of head coach Matthew Mott.

In their first limited overs game since the announcement that Brendon McCullum would combine the red and white ball coaching roles in the new year, England’s three debutants – Jordan Cox, Jacob Bethell and Jamie Overton – made minimal impact, being dismissed for 151 with four balls unused.

Nevertheless, Salt spoke of how proud he was to have taken charge of the team for a short time as he hopes to see a response in Cardiff on Friday night to set up a decider at Emirates Old Trafford on Sunday.

“It’s a huge honour,” he added. “From a team perspective, I’d rather have Jos there, it’s an absolute no-brainer. But it’s a huge honour.”

“There are two games left in this series. We may not have won here, but there are still two possibilities.”