After a healthy home summer, Travis Head’s true tests await in India and England

Travis Head has filled his boots throughout this home summer writes DANIEL CHERNY, but true judgment awaits with Australian tours to India and England in 2023.

Flat-track bully or genuine star? 2023 will test Travis Head. Picture: David Gray / AFP

A bona fide middle order star.

An unreliable flat-track bully.

Come the end of July, Travis Head will likely have earnt one of these reputations.

It’s a binary assessment, but there is little middle ground for the South Australian, who is either on the cusp of greatness or poised to have a “yeah, but” in discussions about his career for quite some time, possibly for good.

The glass half-full discussion about the South Australian is that he has enjoyed a magnificent summer with the bat, walloping 525 runs at the Bazball-esque strike rate of 95. Most of those were cream on the cake of bounties from Australia’s top four, but Head’s most telling contribution came in the form of 92 on a Brisbane deck so green and spongy that it earned the wrath of the ICC.

And Head had form in that sort of situation too. His counterattacking tons at Brisbane and Hobart during last summer’s Ashes led to him being named player of the series despite missing the fourth Test after contracting Covid-19.

These two summers have catapulted Head’s Test batting average above 45, while his average from 22 home Tests is 57.4. That’s a better home average than Ricky Ponting, Greg Chappell, Steve Waugh, Justin Langer, Usman Khawaja and Bob Simpson.

Another prolific home summer has lifted Travis Head’s home batting average above some of Australia’s greatest. Picture: Patrick Hamilton/AFP

There’s a but though. In 11 Tests away from Australia, he averages 23.76 with two half-centuries and a highest score of 72. Most players are better at home than away, but this is a chasm. Here’s a historic sample of some of the Australian batters with better away Test batting averages than Head: Damien Fleming, Bruce Yardley, Kerry O’Keeffe, Nathan Hauritz, Xavier Doherty and Tim Zoehrer.

Better than Ponting but worse than Hauritz with the bat reads like an oxymoron but such is the Head paradox.

The freewheeling titan at home, and the ungainly lamb to the slaughter abroad.

And it’s not like Head is a newbie to the team either, this is from across more than four years in which he has only briefly lost his place in the XI.

There is a compelling argument to say that no Australian player’s reputation is more at stake in this year’s Test tours of India and England than the South Australian.

David Warner’s record in those two countries is poor, but he has made mighty contributions in Bangladesh and South Africa. Since a fighting 72 on debut in Dubai, Head‘s most noteworthy feat away is taking 4-10 on a turner last year in Galle.

It is in some respects harsh to mention Head’s away struggles now, because he has held up his side of the bargain this summer, able to put behind him the disappointment of his travails in Sri Lanka in the middle of last year to enhance his reputation as a dasher on home soil.

Since his debut, Head’s most notable contribution away from Australia was with the ball against Sri Lanka. Picture: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images

He’s even managed to regain his spot in the Australian one-day side, and it would be a surprise from here should he not be opening the batting at the World Cup later this year.

At the end of the Sri Lankan series, there was considerable discussion as to whether Glenn Maxwell – he of a Test century at Ranchi in 2017 – would be a better fit than Head come the India tour, and whether Head’s home form should be ignored come time to pick the XI for the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

That now looks to be a moot point. While Maxwell is a chance to be back in the nets over the next week or two as he recovers from his broken leg, there are no guarantees he will be fit to feature in India, let alone whether selectors would call him up mid-tour.

It should provide Head with a little bit of breathing space and perhaps comfort that he can head to the subcontinent all but certain he will start the series. That he looked Australia’s most dangerous spinner at the SCG early on Sunday – taking the first wicket to fall and having three catches (including a return chance) dropped off his off-spin also makes him harder to discard, especially given how unthreatening Ashton Agar looked. Head is fairly developing a reputation as a golden arm in the Michael Clarke mould.

Australia does not need miracles from Head overseas this year. He doesn’t need to be Waugh of 1997, Matthew Hayden of 2001 or Damien Martyn of 2004. If he can contribute solidly away and not be a liability, he will be well on the way to becoming one of his generation’s best. But if he flops a few times early in India, it’ll be desperately tough to dislodge the home brand.

Originally published as After a healthy home summer, Travis Head’s true tests await in India and England