Cometh the hour, cometh Travis Head. The always swashbuckling but recently out-of-sorts middle-order batter put his hand up and said “I’ll do it,” as Australia were again left scrambling to find an opener to step in for Usman Khawaja in the first Test. The last-minute decision for Head to partner debutant Jake Weatherald at the top of the order and begin the fourth-innings run chase with England in command is the sort of after-the-fact masterstroke that fills the pages of Ashes history. But even with a backstory of heroic and match-defining knocks, few could have expected Head to flip the script in a Test that had seen just 468 runs scored as 30 wickets fell, with an onslaught that immediately etched its place in Ashes folklore as one of the great innings.
Head rocketed to his 10th Test century from 69 balls – the second fastest in Ashes history, the third quickest by an Australian in Tests, and the most rapid in a fourth innings – and celebrated with a few casual twirls of his bat and a half-hearted fist pump. When the 31-year-old was eventually caught in the deep for 123 from 83 deliveries with four sixes and 16 boundaries, emotion flowed in an embrace with Marnus Labuschagne with Australia then just 13 runs from sealing what, 136 minutes earlier, had seemed like an improbable Test victory.
