England's bumper barrage has turned Travis Head into a better player of the short ball, with the Australian No.5 surviving an intense peppering through the first three Ashes Tests.
Head made a crucial 77 for Australia at Headingley on Saturday, keeping them in the third Test with one of the most mature knocks of his career.
But the fact England kept digging the ball in against him while it was still swinging under heavy cloud cover shows just how determined they are to bounce Head.
Of the 248 balls Head has faced from quicks in this series, some 70.7 per cent of them have been considered short by Cricket Australia's stats supplier Opta.
Despite copping bumper after bumper, Head has been dismissed by a genuine bouncer once in six innings while averaging 44.33 at a strike-rate of 73.48.
"I feel like if there's anything I'm going to leave with from England, it might be a pull shot," Head said.
"As the series has gone on, I have played it better.
"It's no doubt it's a challenging thing. It's foreign. There's not many periods we've seen in Test cricket, where it's just been 100 per cent short balls.
"I wasn't surprised by the plan, I prepared for the plan. I thought it was going to come. Just maybe not to the extent that it did."
Head said he arrived in London feeling as if his pull shot was off, and knew from the moment India had him caught on a short ball for 163 in the Test Championship final that England would follow suit.
With England positioning up to six fielders between fly slip and forward square leg for Head, the South Australian has been judicious in taking the ball on.
But he has shown no interest in putting the hook and pull away altogether, scoring 35 of his 77 runs through them in Australia's second innings while still not dismissed playing either shot this series.
In doing so, he has reasoned that his situation is no different to what it would be if his forward defence was off and England had targeted him on the front foot.
"It's no different ... I'd still be trying and play the best forward defence I can. Yes, I'm going to play and miss at one, I'm going to nick one," Head said.
"It's the mentality I've taken (with the short ball).
"I try and look at the field, and I've got to score off it. I can't just sit and cop them, because as we've seen that's going to be the whole day's worth.
"It's hard to say get under them for a few overs and then they'll change their plans. They've just proven that they won't.
"I want to try and put some pressure back on. I want to try and keep the scoreboard moving."
