Test it out quietly to yourself, because it is not yet a fully formed idea. One to be rolled over the tongue to see how it goes before it is released. But maybe, at least at this moment, Travis Head is Australia’s most important Test batter.
This is not an idea born of his run-a-ball century in the World Test Championship final, when he took Australia from precarity to primacy against India at the Oval. It was when that century was still just a threat, on 28 from 18 balls shortly after Marnus Labuschagne had been clean bowled by Mohammed Shami.
Australia’s batting order before Head is stacked with credentials. David Warner did his job as an opener, surviving a fierce early spell from Shami and Mohammed Siraj as the ball swerved under clouds, getting through to near lunch and giving those who followed a better chance. Usman Khawaja did his job in a way, given that openers have to accept the greater likelihood of an early edge.
Labuschagne did a job in sticking it out until his first ball after lunch, his score of 26 useful in the time it absorbed and the partnership it aided. Steve Smith then picked up where he left off in England in 2019, shifting across his crease before defending pointedly or collecting runs to the leg side, ending the day unbeaten on 95.
All are fine operators, and yet none creates that particular feeling that a Travis Head innings can do: a suggestion that anything and everything is possible in the session to come. At 76 for three after a couple of hours of graft having been sent in to bat, Australia could easily have been heading for 120 for six and towards first-innings oblivion. Instead, half an hour of Head changed everything.
It is the lack of hesitation in his game that engenders hesitation in opponents. Straight after arriving, the left-hander was reaching out to the wicket-taking Shami and steering him away for four. His punches through cover and flicks through midwicket followed. Smith had been there longer but added eight of the next 37 runs. That modest change to the scoreboard should not have changed the game, but suddenly India were shuffling the field, looking worried.
For two years, Head’s batting has done this trick consistently. The ability to play in a way that others in his team cannot. The willingness to take on the game no matter the circumstance. The ability to change the timbre of a contest. And such a level of confidence in his method that it doesn’t feel like recklessness, more an expression of joie de vivre.
He did it to England in Brisbane and Hobart to bookend the previous Ashes, centuries with a swinging blade when his team was vulnerable. He did it to South Africa when an erratic Gabba pitch hosted a two-day Test, with 92 from 96 balls when Australia’s next best from the surface lottery was 36. Before Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes hatched their plan to renew England’s approach, the Australian was already playing it.
In India this year, after watching from the sidelines as his batting colleagues tied themselves in knots, Head wandered out to open in Delhi appearing to say: “Hmm, might just hit this Ashwin feller down the ground for six.” He enjoyed it so much that he did it again in Indore. His 43 from 46 in Delhi was huge on a low-scoring turner, not just for the runs but the controlled bullishness of play. Australia still lost but Head’s innings was the example teammates cited in turning their trepidation around, and they came back to win the next meeting in early March.
London this week was a case of same gold, different day. With his increasingly admired moustache regrown, he ran down the pitch bellowing his celebration like a svelte walrus. He followed with a little breather, a loll on the sand while Smith hit a few shots, before taking over boundary-smashing duty again. By stumps, a stand of 251, the first overs of a new ball dealt with, a game firmly in Australia’s favour at 327 for three.
As an early marker for the Ashes, it doesn’t get much better than 146 not out against an excellent attack with plenty on the line. It isn’t just that Head played this way on this day – it’s that he keeps on doing it and it keeps on working. In a vibes-based cricket economy, Australia’s No 5 has by far his team’s most potent offering. England’s approach may be all about following the heart, but we could be about to enjoy the Summer of Head.
