Ashes 2019 | Travis Head throws his weight behind a stem guard after Steve Smith blow

Left-handed batsman Travis Head revealed that he tried the neck guards after his team-mate Phillip Hughes' passed away due a head injury November 2014. However, the 25-year-old then decided not to use them for comfort reasons, similar to what Steve Smith had done and said. But during the Australia innings of the Lord's, in which Smith suffered the blow, the team doctor Richard Saw sought for a neck guard to clip on players helmets for extra protection.

"I didn't usually [wear one]. I guess with the conditions in Australia you can sway out the way, the bounce is quite true," Head was quoted saying by ESPNCricinfo. "I think what we have seen at Lord's with the slope there was a lot of balls following batters and going down the slope. I wore it yesterday and probably will wear it for the rest of the series I guess. The wickets are a little bit slower and you can get some that do different things, so it is not as true bounce. I guess, as you've seen with Steve getting hit, you can get yourself into tricky positions.

"So, I think it'll become mandatory, it is becoming mandatory next year with CA so I may as well get used to it now and then start putting them on. It is something I have played around with. I thought they were going to come in earlier so I trialled them as one of those things. They probably weren't as comfortable I didn't really feel the difference yesterday. It is one of those things as batters, things that are working and not working and I might have worn them and missed out a couple of times and they go back into the kit. But the doc carries them around, so there's a box to whack them on and a few blokes did."

Asked whether there was any team rule about their use, Head said stem guards were currently in the same category as arm guards: something worn by some and not others. "It is each to their own. I guess it is like me with my arm guard," he said. "There is no reason it came up but I can save myself a broken arm if I get hit.

"We feel that the way we played at Edgbaston and most of the week this week [at Lord's], we can compete and play some really good cricket," Travis Head enlightened us about the mood in the Australia change room.

"So, again, there are a lot of guys wearing them; all of the bowlers are wearing them now, so it is the same thing: trying to protect yourself from injury. I want to play every single game I can. Anything that can help or that can stop something happening, I take it it into account. It is up to individuals."