Is Travis Head sending a message after Friday night’s IPL drama? The Australian opener’s latest Instagram post certainly looks like it, especially after the match-night controversy that followed his SRH vs RCB appearance. The image shows Head bowling during the game—something he rarely does. In the same moment, he also strikes, taking the wicket of RCB captain Rajat Patidar. At the bottom of the picture, the caption reads “Keep the body guessing”, a gym-style reminder to keep experimenting rather than settling into the same routine, so the body doesn’t plateau from repetition.
On the surface, the post comes across as a little self-congratulatory, with Head essentially highlighting a role he doesn’t normally occupy. He is primarily known as a top-order batter, but on Friday he stepped into the bowling action and made it count by removing Patidar. For a player who usually contributes with the bat, that detail has added extra intrigue to what is now being read as his attempt to move the conversation forward.
Yet the Instagram update is only a small part of what truly dominated the headlines. During the chase, RCB went down heavily, losing by 55 runs while targeting 256. In the immediate aftermath, the situation turned tense when Virat Kohli refused to shake hands with Head. Kohli did shake hands with SRH skipper Pat Cummins, but not with the Australian opener—prompting instant speculation about what had been brewing in the background.
What seemed to have carried over was something Kohli was already doing during the chase. It wasn’t clear what exactly sparked the exchange, but at one point Kohli sledged Head and asked him to come and bowl “a few deliveries” to him. That detail is important because it contrasts with how Head is typically used in IPL matches. Quite often this season, he has appeared as an impact player or has been brought on as a substitute. On Friday, however, he wasn’t substituted—meaning Kohli’s earlier words effectively had to land, whether Head had planned for it or not.
The moment felt like a direct follow-through. In effect, Kohli’s message appeared to be: if you’re not going to be replaced later, you might as well bowl. Head, for his part, looked visibly unsure when the conversation shifted from words to actions. Still, once Kohli was dismissed, Head fired back with a line of his own: “You are out, mate, before I could even come on to bowl.”
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan, who was commentating during those moments, later suggested the incident should have been handled differently. He said that while something can happen in the heat of the moment during a match, what followed after the game “should not have happened”, underlining that the post-match behaviour crossed a line.
By the tone of Head’s Instagram post, it looks like he’s already trying to close the chapter on the controversy. Instead of dwelling on the handshake fallout or the verbal spat, he’s focusing on the one thing that can’t be argued with—his own contribution on the field, including the wicket and the unusual bowling appearance. For now, Head’s message seems designed to cool things off, even if the sparks from Friday night are still lingering in memory.
