‘You’re not getting your bond back’: The big turnaround by future Australian skipper Travis Head

His door was torn off its hinges, dirty plates were in his room and his sharehouse had holes in the wall. Travis Head has done a lot of growing up in the past decade.

It would be a stretch to say that Travis Head was a wild child. But Australia’s Test captain in-waiting had a fair bit of growing up to do when he arrived on the scene as a teenage state cricketer in South Australia more than a decade ago.

Head’s former Redbacks teammate and now fellow World Cup winner Adam Zampa is adept at spinning a yarn as he is twirling the white ball.

Having also lived for a period with a young David Warner in Sydney, and known Pat Cummins and Steve Smith while they were coming up through the junior ranks, Zampa has a better idea than most about how some of Australia’s top cricketers have evolved over the years.

It is Head, who turns 30 on day four of the Boxing Day Test, who Zampa identifies as having had “the biggest transformation” of this group of Australian stars.

Travis Head on top of the world during the World Cup at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India. Picture: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Zampa had moved to Adelaide to further his domestic career when he and Head moved into a rental property owned by the parents of senior teammate Callum Ferguson in the suburb of Prospect.

Head’s bedroom door came off its hinges.

“And I was the one that was in touch with the real estate agents all the time. I’d be like ‘Heady, just a heads up, the real estate agent’s coming for an inspection today,” Zampa recalls to this masthead.

“He’d be like ‘yeah no, worries.’ So we’d hide the door that was off the hinges somewhere else in the house. And then I’d be like ‘can you clean up the rooms, clean up the clothes? and he’d be like, ‘yeah no worries.’

“And we’d walk into his room, and it would look good from the doorway and then you’d walk around and it was like, plate of lasagne, some clothes all on the other side of the bed.

“So that was him as a young man and now yeah, he’s settled down, father (to one-year-old daughter Milla).”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, that wasn’t the last of the issues in the Zampa-Head household.

“Fergie was like ‘you can have the lease, you can have it for a little while, it’s fine. We’re actually planning on knocking it down and building anyway. So basically, treat it with some respect but if something happens, not too big of an issue,’” Zampa said.

“So we bought a pool table. It’s like that Seinfeld episode when Kramer, Jerry and the maestro are all in the room, putting holes in the walls. We were like, ‘it’s fine, and they’re knocking it down anyway.’ And then we moved out a little while later because we were all going to play in England and Fergie was like ‘just letting you know, real estate agent said you’re not getting your bond back.’

Travis Head showed he still has some larrikin in him during celebrations following the World Cup. Picture: Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images

Travis Head celebrating the World Cup has already become legend in Australia circles. Picture: instagram @travishead34

“It was good times.”

For all that, Head was identified a long way out as a future leader of the Australian side.

Named state captain at just 21, he’d been in the Test side for less than a year when first elevated to the vice-captaincy, before losing that position during a period in which he was in and out of the side.

But after a red-letter year in international cricket in which he was player of the match in three ICC finals, Head was earlier this month reinstated as co-vice-captain alongside Smith underneath Cummins.

While nothing is guaranteed, Head’s age and the fact Cummins has said he wants to keep playing international cricket beyond his captaincy days have left Head as the frontrunner to take over.

“Travis is obviously highly talented, highly skilful. And really, you know, hitting his stripes in international cricket, which we all knew was coming,” close and long-time teammate Alex Carey, who has captained Australia in one-day cricket, said over the weekend.

“He’s had some standout performances, which we all know about. As a leader, I feel like his performances are speaking volumes as a leader. That’s a really good way to lead is go out there and perform strongly and he’s finding his voice among this group as well. He is tactically getting better every game and has been captain in South Australia for a lot of years. So he’s got a really calm head on his shoulders. And there’s more upside to Travis as well. I feel like the consistency he’s showing is what’s going to take this group even further forward. But as a leader, there’s opportunity there one day to potentially, you know, step up.”

The roughness around the edges hasn’t quite gone away completely. From a dirty moustache to the footage of his “yellow Wiggle” move that emerged on social media during Australia’s World Cup celebrations, Head has an everyman quality that endears with fans and teammates alike.

“Just the personality he brings to the team is something that we all love and enjoy the way he plays his cricket. There is a certain amount of freedom to it. He takes the game on, has always got a smile on his face,” Cummins said before this Test series.

Originally published as ‘You’re not getting your bond back’: The big turnaround by future Australian skipper Travis Head