Travis Head: The throwback who could be the future of Test cricket
Greg Chappell calls him the prototype batsman of the future – others feel he is a 50-year throwback to the era of beers, flares, shaggy mos and black and white photos. The crazy thing, writes Robert Craddock, is they are both right.
Greg Chappell calls him the prototype batsman of the future – others feel he is a 50-year throwback to the era of beers, flares, shaggy mos and black and white photos.
The crazy thing is they are both right.
As England found out in Perth, Travis Head’s armoury is as modern as a nuclear rocket – yet it’s as if it’s fired from one of those old fashioned big wheeled cannons from a long lost war.
Something old, something new … something to make England spew.
Head is a batting butterfly who, when bowlers snatch at him with their bare hands, find that he has somehow floated off in another direction.
The irony is he is an uncomplicated man who plays the game in an uncomplicated way yet continues to confound cricket’s computer boffins.
India call him the Headache because that is what he gives them, time after time, taking the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the ODI World Cup and a World Test Championship off them with starburst innings.
England know the vibe because Head has them furiously scratching for answers they cannot find after he brutally dismembered their attack with a century off 69 balls in Perth which Ricky Ponting called “one of Test cricket’s greatest innings.’’
After months of planning, England set three or four traps for Head in Perth on Saturday and he shredded them all with the nonchalance of a man dropping a carrot into a blender.
The contrast was telling … Head, with his rough-hewn mo’ and beard and portly demeanour, looking very much like a 1970s knockabout you might spot having a cold ale in the dressing room with Doug Walters, defying game plans which have been shaped by data sophisticated enough to tell us how much weight he puts onto his front foot.
It was man versus the machine and the machine blew a fuse.
Head has forged a reputation as world cricket’s matchwinner extraordinaire.
Back in the 1980s, West Indian Viv Richards was deemed cricket’s ultimate matchwinner and like Head, bagged 10 man-of-the-match awards in Tests.
Yet Head’s have come in 61 Tests. Richards in 121 – almost double. Amazing.
England captain Ben Stokes has made an art form of sounding robustly positive in defeat with an “onwards and upwards’’ mantra on England’s darkest days.
But on Saturday night he looked and sounded like a farmer who’d just seen his crop destroyed by a hurricane.
Stokes’ eyes had the frozen look of a boxer who’d just wobbled back to his corner after a standing eight count. His words, normally so assured, had the hint of an emotional wobble.
“We tried three or four plans at him,’’ Stokes said.
“We he was going like a train, those plans could change quite quickly because those runs were coming down quickly.
“I have seen Travis play a lot of knocks like that … he’s very hard to stop.’’
Head’s knock for the ages started with three simple words – “I’ll do it’’ – which he uttered to captain Steve Smith as the team was leaving the ground.
Knowing that Usman Khawaja was injured he wanted to put England in their place by opening the innings and what made his knock all the more dam-busting was that England knew what was coming.
First came the radar-setting – he was three off 14 balls, a model of studious intent.
England then tried pitching up but he thumped half volleys to the mid-wicket and cover fence which made English brows furrow and prompted the urgent introduction of Plan B - the short stuff.
The stats told England that was the way to go because Head averages 22 in Tests for balls aimed at his body – but that’s when he’s moving slowly.
On Saturday, pumped with the adrenaline that comes with snapping the chains off a bowler-dominated game, his quick hands and upper body had an electric edge.
Head often does not move his feet that far or that quickly but he can surprise.
When Mark Wood went short Head rocked England by darting inside the line and helping it for four with the quickest feet movement seen on prime time television since Robert Irwin on Dancing With The Stars.
Chappell, in his recently released book The Chappell Chronicles, said: “The essence of Travis’ batting lies in his uncluttered mind. He has chosen a path which prioritises intent over caution, a mindset which allows him to approach every ball with the aim of scoring runs.
“What sets Head apart is his ability to blend aggression with elegance. I believes he is the most improved player in the world over the past three years.’’
Life hasn’t always been easy for Head. The Australian selectors have had a decade long soft spot for him but at times became frustrated by his failings.
They once surprised him by dropping him off the Cricket Australia contract list when he was on holiday with limited phone reception.
It hurt him and jolted him. But it also spurred him to great heights.
Now he has become the man who shook the world. Or most of it.
Pakistan have never rated Head their greatest threat and he has averaged just 22 against them in 10 Tests.
Yet mention his name to India and England and their knees start knocking.
That’s Travis Head for you – the batting butterfly who has confused and confounded the cricket world.
More Coverage
Originally published as Travis Head: The throwback who could be the future of Test cricket
Atherton: England was wrong about Alex Carey
