Travis Head tipped to collect Australian cricket’s highest honour

Travis Head is the raging hot favourite to cement his match-winning reputation with his first Allan Border Medal at next week’s Australian Cricket Awards.

Travis Head is the raging hot favourite to cement his match-winning reputation with his first Allan Border Medal.

Head’s consistency across all formats – especially his sheer domination with the bat in Test cricket – has him likely to storm to victory at next week’s Australian Cricket Awards in a year where there were few other stand outs.

In less than ideal circumstances, Head would be accepting the gong from a hotel room in Sri Lanka where Test players will tap into the medal ceremony in Melbourne on Monday night via video link.

Fast bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins will poll well but in all likelihood missed too much cricket to challenge Head who has taken over David Warner’s mantle as a true all-format superstar.

Head averaged over 42 across all three formats – incredible given more than half his 29 international matches were T20s – and he finishes with three Test centuries and an ODI ton.

Travis Head is the Allan Border Medal favourite. Picture: Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP

The rest of Australia’s batsmen only managed a combined five centuries across the voting period.

Four-time AB Medal winner Steve Smith had another strong year but his 806 runs for Australia during the voting period was still 621 less than Head’s 1427 runs across all formats.

The voting period for the AB medal begins with last summer’s January home Test series against the West Indies, where Head scored a hundred and was man-of-the-match in the first Test, and ends with the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India in which Head scored two centuries and an 89.

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It further cements Head’s status as Australia’s most-important batsman and an Allan Border Medal would be only too fitting for a man who has delivered the Test and one-day teams some of its biggest, history-making moments over recent years.

Head has been a matchwinner in the World Test Championship and World Cup finals and deserves to move into the No. 2 ranking on the contract list behind captain Pat Cummins when the new deals are drawn up in March.

Hazlewood had a big start to the year with his solid performances against the West Indies and New Zealand and then his standout effort in the first Test against India, but then injury struck and stopped his charge.

Cummins also had an excellent year and was named in the ICC World Test team of the year, however, he missed a lot of white ball cricket and therefore missed opportunities to poll.

Head played 29 internationals through the voting period, more than Hazlewood (23), Mitchell Starc (22), Steve Smith (21) and Cummins (18).

Zampa is the only man to play more internationals than Head but it’s very hard for a white ball specialist to take out the main prize because AB Medal voting dictates that Tests are worth double the weight of ODIs and triple that of T20s.

Head should take out the Test player of the year award as well as the big prize of the AB Medal, and it’s possible he could also take out the ODI player of the year award, although he’ll be in strong competition with the likes of Adam Zampa and Xavier Bartlett.

The T20 player of the year award looks like a wide field, but Head is also in the race after some big performances in the T20 World Cup and the tour of the UK.

Cummins, Marcus Stoinis, Zampa, Matt Short and David Warner are all serious contenders for T20 player of the year.

Sam Konstas is surely a huge favourite for Bradman Young Player of the Year.

The Belinda Clark Medal shapes as a thriller, with the ultimate winner potentially coming down to who stars in the day-night Ashes Test currently underway at the MCG.

Ash Gardner is a contender to win back-to-back Clark medals, Beth Mooney is a chance to win her third crown, but there could also be a first-time winner with Annabel Sutherland having another outstanding year.

Originally published as Travis Head tipped to collect Australian cricket’s highest honour