Ashes 2021-22: Travis Head rescues Australia with all-time century in Hobart

Australia launched an incredible day one fightback after being 3/12 in the first session with Travis Head scoring a match-saving century in Hobart.  Re-live all the action here.

Travis Head has redefined himself as the present and future of Australian cricket, with the standout innings of his career to go down as an all-time Ashes classic.

Coming to the crease on a menacing green top with England’s bowlers firing and Australia in crisis at 3-12, Head proceeded to peel off an electric 112-ball hundred.

Head was similarly spectacular when he smashed a century in a session in the first Ashes Test in Brisbane, but that was scored with Australia already on top in the game – not with David Warner and Steve Smith already back in the shed with ducks and Usman Khawaja also gone.

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Cameron Green (74) also continued his meteoric rise, backing up his return to batting form in Sydney before ultimately falling early in the last session to leave Australia 6-236 in an intriguing day’s battle between bat and ball.

It was disappointment for Green at throwing away a shot at a maiden Test series, but this is still a landmark series in which he has evolved into the complete package as a Test all-rounder.

Faced with a wicket that was seaming all over the place, Head wrestled momentum back for Australia and is now the leading run-scorer of the series (349) despite missing the Sydney Test with COVID-19.

Travis Head celebrates his century.

Head’s match-altering century in Hobart showed that his career possibilities are endless and predictions he could be a future Australian captain are certainly not unfounded.

But it wasn’t a one-man show and a 71-run partnership with Marnus Labuschagne (44 off 53) and a stunning 121-run stand with Green demoralised England, who by the end of the first session had lost their most likely quick Ollie Robinson to injury as the rest of the attack crumbled.

Head’s aggressive shot-making and the fearlessness with which he took to the surface will ensure this innings lives long in Ashes folklore, as Michael Vaughan swore he saw Allan Border in some of the South Australian’s drives.

Adam Gilchrist on Fox said it was like watching Head mature “before our very eyes.”

Australia were 4-85 when Labuschagne fell just before the first interval to one of the most bizarre dismissals ever seen in Test cricket – losing his footing as he walked too far across his stumps to be bowled behind his legs middle-stump.

From the second session they’d belted 130 runs, with Head the only wicket to fall – incredibly out with a brain snap the very next delivery after celebrating his fourth career century in 22 Tests.

Head’s disappointment at not continuing to put England to the sword through the night session was eased by the knowledge that he has reinvented his reputation as a flaky, enigmatic figure, to a consistent, match-breaking figure in the middle-order, averaging 69 this Ashes.

“Over a long period of time, over the past two or three years I’ve tried to become the most consistent batter I can be,” Head told Fox Cricket.

“I worked really hard with my technique. I want to be as consistent as I can be every day and I have been able to mould that over a period of time.”

Head has fulfilled his goal by posting the three fastest half centuries of this series and scoring 50 per cent quicker than any other specialist batsman from either side.

Rain prematurely forced play to be abandoned on day one with Australia 6-241, as Head reflected on how he has executed such a breakthrough series in his career.

Marnus Labuschagne was part of one of the most bizarre dismissals ever seen.

“Yeah I’ve definitely come into this series more relaxed. The fact Pat (Cummins) and JL (Justin Langer) have backed me in quite hard over a period and asked me to go out and play the way I see the game,” said Head.

“And I feel I’m coming off some strong Shield seasons to know my game is in good order. I’ve definitely come in with an expectation of what’s required and I’ve been able to go out and express myself as I see fit and I’m happy to have been as consistent as I have been.”

Head was disappointed he threw away a shot at a big hundred after losing concentration after reaching his milestone.

“I was disappointed I wasn’t able to go on and make a big score. I’d worked really hard to get in that position,” he said.

Head said anything over 300 would be a good first innings total.

Labuschagne once again showed his class as one of the world’s truly heavy-duty batsmen, even though his dismissal provided a piece of unintentional cricket comedy that made Steve Smith and Pat Cummins smirk in the dressing room despite the precarious situation of the game at that point.

The Labuschagne innings started with him being dropped on a duck – continuing his incredible run as statistically the world’s luckiest batsman.

Labuschagne has been dropped from 50 per cent of the chances he has been given in Test cricket when fielders usually catch at a rate above 80 per cent – but the Queenslander’s resolve in menacing conditions show that the good players make their own luck.

It was Labuschagne’s nine boundaries which initially stopped England’s rampant early momentum, and erased fears Australia could collapse in similarly embarrassing style to the last time they were in Hobart when South Africa skittled them for 85 back in 2016.

Channel 7 commentator Damien Fleming described the sight of the green wicket as “22 yards of kryptonite for the top order” – and so it proved with Warner and Smith falling for ducks for the first time ever in the same innings.

Khawaja’s return as a Test opener lasted 26 balls, but it was a wicket where eventually a ball had the batter’s number – and Stuart Broad and Robinson were flying with two early wickets each until the wheels fell off.