Fast bowler Mitchell Starc won player of this Ashes series but make no mistake, talismanic bat-out-of-hell Travis Head was the man who ripped out England’s heart and served it to them on a silver platter with a cold beer chaser.
With three outlandish centuries across the five Tests, Head’s statistical contribution was immense. He scored 629 runs at an average of 62.9 and a strike-rate of 87.36. But it was the weird and wonderful way he scored them which truly demoralised England.
Slapshots, hammered hooks, ramps over slips, murderous cuts, overhead smashes. Not much of Head’s strokeplay is orthodox or endorsed by coaches the world over. But when it works – which it does more often than – it makes anything seem possible.
It’s why crowds love Head. Like many rogue geniuses of sport – Maradona, Campese, McEnroe, Senna – he is crazy brave, with a brain full of loose wires that can spark magic or mayhem in equal measure. Rarely has a sportsperson been so misnamed. Head is all heart, a revving engine full of fizzing nerve-ends rather than firing neurons.
In the hazy glow of a 4-1 series victory, it’s easy to forget that England were on top in the first Test when Head walked to the wicket as a last-minute substitute opener for Usman Khawaja who had twinged his back on day one after playing golf on Test-eve.
Nineteen wickets had fallen yet England then cruised to 65-1 for a lead of 105 runs. Scott Boland triggered a collapse of 9-99 but a 205 total was formidable given no team had yet scored more than 172. Not that Head gives a fig for stats or status. “Pink ball, white ball, red ball… who really cares?” is what he says.
In a blitzkrieg 69 balls, Head hit the third-fastest century by an Australian since 1877 and ultimately tonked, tickled and trick-shotted his way to 123 from 83 balls. Along the way he put England captain Ben Stokes’s head on a pike with four fours in an over.
In the space of 28.2 overs, England’s Ashes crusade was in ruins and the hot air of Bazball was disappearing like a fart in a hurricane, trumped by the chaos of Travball. Head finished the demolition with 170 in Adelaide and 163 this week in Sydney.
Having fallen thereabouts seven times, a reporter asked if he mourned not reaching 200. Head shrugged. “Beggars can’t be choosers… pretty shit stat isn’t it? I’ve had a few chances this series… I’d rather have the pegs up and watch the boys go about it.”
This attitude is rare. Cricketers are traditionally stat rats. Steve Smith’s first emotion when dismissed for 138 on Thursday was anger. Head has something more valuable – the force of will to enter the flow state but with it the freedom to play care-free. In a stressed-out world he chooses fun first, a professional who plays like a kid in a park.
When he began playing Shield cricket, Head was mentored by the late Phillip Hughes who spoke of cricket as a game of second chances. Fail in the first innings and there’s usually an opportunity to make good in the second. Head made the ‘rocks or diamonds’ ethos his credo.
As he rose through the ranks, the prodigy from Tea Tree Gully drank a lot of beer and ate plenty of humble pie. In the first five years of his career pain shadowed success. He debuted for his state at 18 and was captain at 21, the season after Hughes died.
Blooded in the Test side in 2018, he played 16 consecutive Tests, before an exile. Returning for the 2021-22 Ashes, Pat Cummins told Head to stop adapting his game to the state of the scoreboard and change the game by playing his way. He met England as a new man, flaying 152 from 148 in the first Test and winning player of the series.
He has been a cult hero of multiple memes ever since, famously tuning up for the 2023 World Test Championship by partying all over Europe on honeymoon with his wife, Jess. Having not picked up a bat in six weeks, Head coolly lashed a match-winning 163 and shortly after, crunched 137 off 120 to win Australia the 2023 ODI World Cup.
As the Allan Border medallist in 2025, Head is now one of the faces of the Australian game, setting the team’s tone as its newest opening bat and off-field, its social secretary. Head was South Australia’s youngest ever skipper and is current Test vice-captain. If Cummins and Smith fell ill and the crown fell his way, would he pull his head in?
Australia cricket has traditionally shunned its mavericks as captains, preferring the safety of statesmen. Ian Johnson over Keith Miller. Steve Waugh over Shane Warne. Do they dare saddle their wildest horse and rein him in with responsibility? Or might it be wiser – and more fun – to buy him a beer and keep his lightning in the bottle?