Buy The Art of Batting here:
“My method is, if the field is up, take them on. If he’s here and he’s here, fucken get all of them back.”
Travis Head is explaining the genius behind his cricket. He doesn’t just bat to the ball coming down, he is also looking at the fielding positions, bounce on the pitch previously, and the ground dimensions. It’s one attacking shot, with several different logical explanations behind it.
Specifically in this video, he is pointing at the short leg and leg slip, and saying that with them in place, playing off the hip, or defending, is a tricky shot for him. We saw him forget about the leg slip being in after he played a shot off his hip in a Test against England, and he was furious with himself. And so his best option is to fucken whack it.
By that, he means the pull or hook. He has the eye, hand speed, technique and power to take the attacking ball coming at him, and attack the shit right back out of it. Playing the pull, hook and upper cut in Test cricket, Head averages 63 at a strike rate of 173.
Come for his head, and he comes for yours.