World Test Championship Final 2023: Travis Head makes selectors look silly on the back of another century

Since Travis Head’s Test debut, Australia has never won a Test without him. As Daniel Cherny writes from London, it makes his shoddy treatment by selectors all the more mystifying.

Like the bushy growth above his upper lip, Travis Head’s Test career has long been endangered by the razor blade.

Having made his Test debut not even five years ago, Head has somehow been dropped by three different Australian selection panels for Tests on three different continents.

Quite frankly, they have all been made to look a bit silly. Since he got his baggy green in Dubai in 2018, Australia has never won a Test without him.

In 2019, Head was dropped for the fifth Ashes Test after averaging 27 across the first four rubbers. The idea was to bring in an all-rounder in Mitchell Marsh, even though the Aussies needed only a draw for a series victory. Marsh bowled well but Australia still lost.

Travis Head on his way to a commanding WTC century. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

The following summer the Aussies publicly toyed with the idea of dropping Head again to bring in an extra bowler on what was expected to be a flat MCG wicket. Head ended up playing that match, and made a century.

Twelve months later Head was dropped after scores of seven, 38 and 17 to start a series against India, as Will Pucovski and David Warner were included for the third Test in Sydney. That match was a draw, before Australia lost the decider in Brisbane, Head remaining an omission.

He then lost his central contract, before winning a tight selection duel with Usman Khawaja for the final batting place in the 2021-22 Ashes series. Head duly went on to make 357 runs across four Tests, named player of the series despite missing the fourth Test in Sydney – the sole occasion that summer that England hung on for a draw.

Travis Head after being left out of the Test team in India in 2023. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Travis Head with then coach Justin Langer after being left out of the XI for the 5th Test of the 2019 Ashes. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)

His most controversial axing came just months ago in Nagpur, as selectors, spooked by Head’s poor record in Asia and the prospect of Ravichandran Ashwin running through a lefty-heavy line-up, picked Peter Handscomb and Matthew Renshaw instead.

Handscomb did OK but Renshaw flopped and Australia lost. Recalled for the final three Tests, Head averaged 47 at a strike rate of more than 68, nervelessly slashing Australia home in its lone victory for the series at Indore.

Here are some other numbers. Head is not even 30, has six Test centuries, averages in the high 40s and has a strike rate in the 60s.

There’s a pretty clear lesson in all this. Australia is a much better side with Travis Head in it. On Wednesday at The Oval, he arrived in the middle with Australia 3-76 and on the back foot in the World Test Championship final.

Within half an hour he had changed the tempo of the match, aggressively sticking it to Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj, India’s two primary pace threats.

With Steve Smith grinding at the other end, Head took advantage of sunny afternoon conditions, and a flagging attack that afforded him way too much to swivel.

Travis Head celebrates his classic counterattacking century – a Head trademark. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

It was a classic counterattacking innings, quickly becoming a Head trademark.

Heading into this tour, Smith was the lone member of the Aussie party with a Test century on English soil (he had six of them).

By day’s end that tally had risen to seven, albeit Smith was on the cusp of making it eight. The freshest one was from Head, who having never previously made an overseas Test ton will enter the Ashes on the back of one.

Head was magnanimous when asked post-play about his treatment from the selectors.

“I‘m very privileged to be where I am and do what I do,” Head said.

“Selection isn’t going to always go your way, it hasn’t in the past. That’s out of my control.

“Yes I’d love to play every single Test match, that’s not always going to be the case.

“Hopefully I don’t get dropped too much in the future.”

While so much of the hype heading into fight for the urn has surrounded England’s revolutionary Bazball, Head plays the game in as swashbuckling style as any of Brendon McCullum’s men.

That should be an afterthought for now though, because this innings could set up a maiden world title for Australia in the game’s most prestigious format.

For a while it was reasonably said that Head was a great player in certain (i.e. home) conditions. You can drop the qualifiers. And surely you can forget about him being dropped anymore.

Originally published as World Test Championship Final 2023: Travis Head makes selectors look silly on the back of another century