This was a brilliant day for the Adelaide-born Head as he scored a stunning century in front of a packed crowd on familiar ground.

It was a wild innings full of trademark shots right in front of the wicket as he cut, dabbed, pulled and effortlessly cut his way to three figures.

In fact, 113 of his runs came from either side of the stumps as India’s bowlers served two of their highest-scoring areas.

However, there were occasional moments of good fortune during a second leg, which was not at all consistent with how most Australian players approached the game.

The head smashed Ravichandran Ashwin straight to the ground for a massive six in the 68th over, then tried again on the next ball but hit it in the air, only for Siraj to fire a diving catch.

He was on 76 at the time and Australia’s position in this Test match might not have looked so rosy had that chance been taken.

However, one of Head’s strongest qualities is that such moments don’t faze him, and he remained unconcerned for the rest of his time at the goal line.

He brought up his century with a jab at the leg side of Siraj, reaching the 111-delivery milestone and celebrated by waving his bat in a nod to his newborn son before saluting the crowd.

There is certainly something appealing about batting on home soil for the South Australian. He scored 634 runs in nine Test innings at the Adelaide Oval, including three centuries.

At 79.25, that’s almost double his career Test average of 41.96.

The 30-year-old dismissed Siraj in style in six balls, reaching 140 in as many deliveries, before he was finally taken out of the game one ball later when the Indian seamer took him out with a York delivery.

There was then a terse verbal altercation with Siraj, who, rather bizarrely given India’s predicament, decided to send Head off. The Australian batsman hesitated for a moment and gave in as best he could before leaving.