Why Travis Head owns the Adelaide Oval – and India’s bowling attack

Adelaide’s famous son is always in a hurry. The game is always on fast forward with him on the stage. Everything else gets pushed aside – it’s all about watching him bat. Travis Head is Tex Walker and Mark Riccciuto rolled into one.

In that moment, Travis Head owned the Adelaide Oval. In that moment, Travis Head owned all of Adelaide.

Right from the pink skies above to the pink ball that he was smashing all around this loveliest of sporting venues. This was his city. This was his oval. This was his evening. This was his world.

For most locals, the Adelaide Test is the chance to socialise. To network. To make their presence felt. It’s about reunions and boozy business meetings. It’s about Pimms and top hats and flowing summer dresses. The birth of grandiose ideas conceived through high-spirited collaborations and the start of many great romances kicked off by a chance meeting on the Village Green.

Travis Head celebrates with teammate Alex Carey, right, after scoring a century on day two of the second cricket Test match between Australia and India, at the Adelaide Oval. Picture: AFP

That is till the time Travis Head walks out to bat. Then it’s all about watching him bat. Everything else gets pushed aside. Even the patrons on the Village Green take a break from their chatter and turn their attention to the big screens all around them. Those inside the Adelaide Oval do the same, moving to the edge of their seats and taking breaks to either talk or top up on a drink only when Head’s not on strike.

India by now all know about Travis Head. A bit too well.

Indian cricket fans will insist that Head’s owned their bowling attack for the past 18 months. When it’s mattered most. Whenever Australia have found themselves in a spot of bother. Every time India have felt like they’re on top. It’s surprising no spiritual guru has yet to come up with a way to thwart this most unrelenting of antagonists. Maybe it’s in the making. An amulet or a holy thread that the Indian bowlers get encouraged to wear whenever they have to contend with Head.

He’d played party-pooper in the World Test Championship final at The Oval before doing so in extraordinary fashion at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in the 50-over World Cup final.

When he walked out to bat on Saturday, Australia weren’t in a crisis but surely a spot of bother. It called for a Head special. And as is the norm now, he didn’t fail to deliver. If anything, he ended up producing his finest Test knock, with his team under pressure after the loss in the first Test, and with the spotlight firmly set on him.

Travis Head plays a shot in match between Australia and India at the Adelaide Oval on December 7, 2024. Picture: AFP

His victory-shaping innings of 140 wasn’t all about his shot-making, even if it was largely that. The man with the best eye and the quickest hands in the business was using his bat like a rapier against all comers. Even Jasprit Bumrah wasn’t spared.

It wasn’t always a case of Head making the Indians pay for missing their line or length. He was generating errors by creating his own lines and lengths. Cutting and scything balls that weren’t there to cut or scythe. Whipping and pulling balls that weren’t there to whip or pull.

This was Head at his most dangerous, the latest reminder that he’s the most feared all-format batter in world cricket on this date.

There’s no surprises as to why he’s a cult hero in these parts. Someone who the city and state love having as their poster boy.

He’s Tex Walker and Mark Riccciuto rolled into one. All action, all excitement, all energy. Surely, he’ll have a part of the Oval named after him. It’ll be The Hill under the scorecard in all likelihood. It’ll make sense. That’s where they have the most fun after all. And Head is the man who’s provided them with most of that fun in the last decade.

Blewett was classy, Lehmann was a behemoth but Hookesy was probably the one who brought Adelaide to a halt. He was the one who really got them going. Much like Head does these days.

It’s quite incredible that the partisan patrons of this parochial city had to wait 27 years to see one of their own score a century at the Adelaide Oval before Head set that record straight. Now, he’s done it two more times. Three tons in three Tests.

What was Mohammad Siraj even thinking about while giving Travis Head a send-off at the Adelaide Oval. Like walking into Mike Tyson’s house and throwing a punch at him. It was always going to not end too well for the fiery Indian fast bowler. Nor did it, with boos now expected to ring around every Australian stadium he plays in, not just this summer but through every subsequent visit to the country.

Head acknowledges the crowd while leaving the field after being bowled out by Mohammed Siraj of India. Picture: Getty

Head will probably be on the cover of the book about the ultimate larrikin in the Australian cricket team of this generation. In the way I understand that term anyway. A free-spirit, a maverick, a one of a kind, a larger than life hero who lives life large. The moustache, the celebrations, the unruly hair and the way he speaks, which is always like the way he bats.

Everything Scott Boland is not. The Victorian is the metronome. He’s stoic, unwavering, undeterred and always on the money.

If Head steals and captures hearts, Boland is all heart. With every match, with every spell, with every ball. And it was only when Scotty had the ball in his hands that the noise and the energy around a packed Adelaide Oval matched what it was like when Head was having a day out. Not like Travis would have minded it.

It’s ironic Head’s style and approach to batting is quite the opposite of the reputation that Adelaide has as a city. For unlike the rest of Adelaide, its famous son is always in a hurry. The game is always on fast forward with him on the stage.

He’s always producing flashes of brilliance and moments of great exhilaration. There’s no time to breathe. There’s no time to look away. Not when Head is holding court. Like he did on Saturday and like he has every time he steps out to bat at a venue that is now his, just like the city and the state that he has the keys to all around it.