Travis Head has opened up for the first time about the love match that has spurred his career
How a reunion with school sweetheart Jessica Davies provided the rock that saw Travis Head’s career hit overdrive.
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Travis Head has revealed the power of love behind his surge to break-out Test star and leader entering Australia’s Ashes defence in England.
A reunion with school sweetheart Jessica Davies provided the rock that saw Head’s career hit overdrive.
“Jess has been the best thing for me. She has been amazing. To have her there has changed the way I thought a lot about things,” said Head of the woman who mended his wounded heart following former Test batsman Phillip Hughes’ death.
“Jessica has helped me a lot in life and cricket.”
Moving in with Jess at Tennyson coincided with Head’s 51 average over eight Tests as Australia’s batsman of the 2018-19 summer.
Six of seven first-class tons have been with Jess by Head’s side, having waited four years for his first against a Justin Langer-coached Western Australia in November 2015.
“She is a shoulder to lean on and I probably didn’t have that living out of home for so long,” said Gawler
export Head, preparing to take on Jimmy Anderson and company in the Ashes series-opener from
August 1 in Birmingham.
“Mum and Dad are further away. She is someone nice to talk to if I am going through a rough patch or away, an extremely smart girl.”
“I feel like I am grounded.”
An endless summer touring the globe sounds exotic, but empty hotel rooms and time away from loved ones can be a trap for young cricketers. The game he loved was becoming a grind for Head, before linking up with Jessica during a 2016 English County stint at Yorkshire.
In the space of 18 months, Head had dealt with the fate of Redbacks team-mate Hughes, responsibility as South Australia’s youngest skipper and pressure of international cricket.
“He decided to fly me over and the time we spent together won me over,” said Davies, who is studying an MBA.
“It is just being really open with each other. I try to have a life for Travis outside of cricket. I think that settles him. Before he would go home to a hotel room and be consumed by cricket.”
Jess will be a perfect sounding board on the phone, then in Australia’s camp for the fourth and fifth Tests at Old Trafford and The Oval, when families are permitted by national coach Justin Langer.
“You need your loved ones on tour when possible,” Head said.
Cricket’s best partnerships – like former Test openers Langer and Matthew Hayden – back each other in good times and bad.
Head had been prepared to put his Test debut on hold against
Pakistan last October to support Jess, whose mother was fighting a serious illness.
Head flew from a warm-up tour in India last September and remained with Jess in Adelaide despite being due to make his Test debut in Dubai against Pakistan days later.
“I’m not here for a lot of things for her, so for something like that I thought it was pretty important to hang around for a few days. JL and everyone was really good,” recalled Head of a family-first ethos supported by Langer and predecessor Darren Lehmann.
“I have learnt that cricket isn’t everything. It has given me a greater understanding and respect on what I do.”
Head had spent every day since aged six at Craigmore Cricket Club wielding a bat in pursuit of the baggy green, but he only made a late dash to Dubai when it felt right.
“He has been amazing with all the responsibilities he has. I didn’t want him to fly back home, but it was personal, health issues with my Mum,” said Davies.
“We are getting through that, but he was so supportive, didn’t question it. I said ‘no’, he didn’t listen. I don’t know how I would have handled it without him to be honest.
“He was awesome ... and that just made me feel like that is the type of person Travis is. Family for him is the most important thing.”
Head made a duck in his first Test innings against Pakistan in Dubai before responding with 72 in a match-saving 137-run, second innings stand with Usman Khawaja. Head would rattle on to 663 Test runs at 51 for the summer.
“It didn’t feel like a big sacrifice for me. I think it was good to be around Jessica in a hard, little period,” said Head.
The magnitude of a rare cricket journey manifested following 25-year-old Head’s maiden Test century against Sri Lanka at Canberra in February. It was a seminal moment for a prodigy blooded by South Australia at 18 years and 35 days and its youngest skipper at 21 years and 40 days.
“It just hit me about the day, what it was and the emotion of getting it. It was more satisfaction of how hard I had worked,” recalled Head of the 161 in 204 balls that set up Australia’s win against Sri Lanka.
A maiden ton is as much about the people who have got players to that moment as the achievement. There are the sacrifices by parents, partners and those lost along the way.
Head was caught off-guard and consumed by emotion after reflecting on his nod to the sky in honour of Hughes, who died in 2014 after being struck by a bouncer batting against New South Wales at the SCG.
Tears streamed involuntarily down the left-hander’s face after stumps in the capital, meshing with sun cream, sweat and relief.
“I shared the celebration with the guys who are here and would like to have shared it with him as well,” said Head of Hughes.
Head had saluted his teammate in the heavens for every Sheffield Shield century and a first one-day ton against Pakistan two years earlier in Adelaide. This time was different.
“I can get quite emotional, but not in that sort of sense or that moment. Not like it did in that situation. That was a first for me,” said Head, who had a lucky charm dinner with manager Andrew McRitchie and Darren Lehmann the night before his breakthrough Test ton.
“I am not embarrassed by it. That is the way it is. I think about a lot of people when I go out and bat, a lot of people in my life when I am out there and do well and he is a part of that and my journey.”
Head, early in his first-class career, had congratulated Hughes on a century for South Australia. His mentor’s business-like reply was instructive, “that’s my job, to score hundreds”.
But there were times when Head, arguably, tried too hard to emulate the professionalism of Hughes or former South Australian skipper
Michael Klinger.
Learning to switch off from the game – with Jess’s help – has made Head a precious asset in Tim Paine’s Ashes unit and will be crucial under the glare of a hostile English media.
“I didn’t get until later how special it is to have this career, to sit back and say ‘this is amazing’,” said Head, who is relishing his inaugural Ashes campaign.
“I have been fortunate in my career for things to happen pretty quickly.”
Appointed Australian interim vice-captain to Paine against Sri Lanka in just his third Test series last February, Head is respected as a sincere leader beyond his years.
Head is captaining Australia A’s current one-day tour of England and will be Paine’s lieutenant during Ashes warm-up games next month.
Head, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins are contenders to be Paine’s Ashes deputy, while the South Australian is a front-line candidate to be Australia’s next long-term skipper – contingent on form.
“I have got off to a reasonably consistent start in my Test career,” said middle-order batsman Head.
“The vice-captaincy stuff wasn’t something I was thinking about, it popped up. If I can drive the team to what we need to do to get success, I am more than happy to do that role.
“I have learnt that you don’t hunt it, if it comes it comes.”
Head was player of the championship and skipper in SA’s 2012 under-19 championship triumph. A first-class average of 40.59 in 40 Sheffield Shield matches as Redbacks captain illustrates how leadership agrees with Head.
“It has dawned on me the last couple of years how lucky I am to have that experience, learning about leadership. I draw on that, which has changed a lot the way I think about the game and others,” Head told The Advertiser.
Legendary Australian skipper Ricky Ponting’s taming from rough diamond to Test skipper by wife Rianna is well documented.
Davies fondly recalls the kid with “a mullet” at Trinity College who loved to clown around in between meticulous dedication to cricket that is reaping due reward.
“I think it is pretty amazing, his first Ashes tour, but there has been a lot of firsts these past 12 months, it has been really awesome for him,” said Davies.
“It is so exciting. I have all the confidence in Travis.”
Lying in an ambulance having been struck by a car outside the Old Lion Hotel in 2013, Head was sober but sore from multiple head stitches. Head resolved to “respect” his talent and honour a reprieve from misfortune. His time is now.
Head’s ambition to pile on runs through a first Australian Ashes triumph in England since 2001 was sharpened by the disappointment of missing a 2019 World Cup spot.
“England is unbelievable, the buzz at grounds. I feel like I have done well against England in the past, can’t wait to have the chance to play Test cricket in England,” said Head, who averages 52 from six one-day games against England in the Old Dart.
“I will need to be on my game straight away. It will be tough, hard.
“I will just embrace it for what it is. Ashes series don’t come around too often.”
THE ASHES 2019
FIRST TEST
August 1-5
Edgbaston, Birmingham
SECOND TEST
August 14-18
Lord’s, London
THIRD TEST
August 22-26
Headingley, Leeds
FOURTH TEST
September 4-8
Old Trafford, Manchester
FIFTH TEST
September 12-16
The Oval, London
2019 CRICKET WORLD CUP
Australia v England
Tuesday, 7pm
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