Cricket 2023: Travis Head explains brain snap in The Test documentary

A monster 12 months awaits Travis Head. The once-maligned batsman has a chance to prove himself as an all-conditions player - and even Australia’s secret weapon in shutting down BazBall.

For better and occasionally for worse, the new Test documentary has established this much about Travis Head … he cares. Deeply.

One of the most graphic scenes in the new series that launched on Prime Video this week shows Head hurtling his bat 10 metres across a dressing room in a fit of rage after being dismissed in Sri Lanka last year.

The overseas record – averaging 21.30 from seven Tests in Asia – which may have contributed to this visceral reaction, is one Head must address when Australia tours India next month.

Beneath the jaunty stride and affable demeanour, so often the trait of South Australian Test cricketers, there is a genuinely emotional side to Head that is his driving force as a cricketer, even if it does sometimes push him too far.

Head would like to have his bat throw moment back again, but is happy at least that audiences have a raw insight into his heart-on-sleeve approach, for which he makes no apologies.

There is a tiger stirring within Australia’s most exciting batting prospect.

Travis Head of Australia looks dejected after losing his wicket during day two of the First Test match between Australia and South Africa at The Gabba on December 18, 2022 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

“That’s the thing in the doco, you turn around and you see the camera in the corner and you go, ‘oh shit,’” Head said of his brain snap in the Sri Lankan rooms.

“It came natural. It’s raw. I don’t try and do it too much, but emotions do go and you have moments you look back on and you’d like to take back.

“It gives people an insight. It means a lot. Every Test means a lot and every innings means a lot.

“I don’t really apologise for any of that. I am there to play and play well and try and win games of cricket and try and do as best as I can.

“The emotions that come out are natural. There are moments you’d like to take back, or I’d do differently, but people go through different stages and frustrations.”

One regret Head did have from another summer of consistency and brilliance was the anger he expressed at batting partner Cameron Green, when a running mix-up cost him a shot at a double-century against the West Indies at his home ground in Adelaide.

“Yeah, I had a few choice words there, and that’s another moment you’d like to take back,” Head admits.

“I would have liked to actually walk off the ground and actually appreciate the crowd and enjoy that moment.

“But when you’re 175 and you get run out, different emotions go through your head. And you wake up in the morning and you go (I’d do that differently).”

Head after his 150 in Adelaide. He regets lashing out at Cam Green. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

When it comes to dressing room blow ups, Head is hardly in an exclusive club.

There are other primal moments of anger captured in the sheds during the Test season two, including from David Warner and Steve Smith.

After being run-out by Usman Khawaja in Sri Lanka, Smith storms into the dressing room, slams a door and is heard screaming at himself in the next room.

Michael Slater once put his bat and pad down a toilet, while Michael Bevan was renowned for what other players nicknamed a “Bev Attack” when he walked back into the sheds from being dismissed.

Greg Chappell once threw his bat as a young player, but after an older head in the dressing room quipped, “you might need that one day, son,” he never did it again.

Teammates said Damien Martyn had a rare ability to go the other way from most and internalise his feelings – never showing outward emotion when he got back to the rooms. It was the same with Doug Walters, who was admired for his serenity.

Intrigue surrounds Head’s tour to India. At home he has been a run-making phenomenon the past two summers and averages 57 on home soil.

But in his brief career in the subcontinent and England, Head has struggled and he needs to conquer both mountains this year with assignments in India and another much-hyped Ashes tour of the UK.

Head looms as a key player for Australia’s next two tours. Picture: AFP

If he can, Head shapes as the key man in Australia’s mission to create history – because few batsmen in the world game can take a match away from an opposition as quickly and as ruthlessly as the South Australian.

Should Head get off to a slow start with the bat in India, the Test will be for Australian selectors and whether they stay the course with their No. 5 away from home.

Test great Mike Hussey is adamant they must, and that Head will reward them if faith is shown.

Greg Blewett believes when it comes to the Ashes, Head can be Australia’s answer to the BazBall revolution.

Head – who could also play a key role with his part-time off spin in India – said the big lesson he took out of his failures with the bat in Pakistan and Sri Lanka last year was he needs to be more aggressive.

“I was really pleased with how I played the other day (in the Sydney Test) against spin. I was a bit more positive against it,” Head said.

“That’s the takeaway for me. Be a bit more positive against it. I wasn’t as positive as I would have liked to be in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and you look at how England played their spin on really good wickets in Pakistan. I probably could have been a bit more aggressive against the spin.

“The record (of struggling in Asia) gets spoken about. You’re only two or three hits away from that changing that or two or three hits away from that going even lower.

“But (seven Tests) is such a small sample piece.

“The last 12 months (with my fast scoring), I haven’t chased it or tried it or been conscious of it. It’s just happened.”

Originally published as Cricket 2023: Travis Head explains brain snap in The Test documentary