With future hanging in thread, Travis Head delivers sucker punch
Travis Head is your boy next door, no one really gives a damn about, people don’t care to give a personal invitation but somehow ends up doing the bulk of the backdoor work at the Christmas Party. The kind of guy who would not tell you how difficult it actually is to pull off the incredible gala.
Doesn’t matter if he is one of the few Australians to have a century next to his name in the 2018 Aussie summer, doesn’t matter if his 86 runs in two innings in Edgbaston laid the foundation for Australia retaining the urn in England, Travis Head seems to be the first person to be dropped from the squad in the pretext of balance. If MCG curator Matthew Page hadn't left a bit of grass for the Boxing Day Test, then Head would have headed to Gold Coast now to play for Adelaide Strikers. Such has been his predicament. The second-highest run-scorer for Australia since his Test debut in October 2018, Head is a dichotomy that Australia have hardly understood.
For Head, it was many things that made a mark. It was never about his glowing aphorisms as a batsman whose head falls over as he plays a stroke or takes a sudden rapid stride to the front of the wicket, only to inside edge it through cracks that somehow doesn’t hit his stumps. Australia’s growing fondness with conventional Test batsman - Sorry, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, you guys can carry on - means there have been doubts about players who don’t fit the traditional bill. The mark had been written in bold by then as Head faltered many a time to satisfy the purists.
Amidst all this, one has got to give it to him for never being worried about the place in the side because he knows what he brings to the table - an immeasurable amount of restraint through hiss "ugly" batting. His dismissals in both the innings in Perth was heavily criticised by Ricky Ponting and nevermind his half-century, it was the lack of aesthetics that made headlines. Like a headless chicken, Head was wondering what more could he do to guarantee a place in the side. With the future hanging in threads, the South Australian delivered an innings at the MCG that is the perfect symbolisation of his grit and will power to cement his name in the golden page of Australian cricket.
Travis Head celebrates his century in front of a packed MCG crowd © GettyGrit and will power are the two words that have always been his biggest calling card, nevermind some of his dismissals told a different story. He made his Test debut for Australia when there was more talk about culture review than the actual game, with the Australian team finding itself in a total mess. He would have been forgiven had he taken the escape route and given away some random excuses. That, however, would be unlike Head as he stood tall in the bruise and delivered. Not only did he stand out with the bat, scoring two half-centuries in Adelaide and Perth, but also ensured that everything was not lost for the Australians. There was still enough blood flowing in their veins to produce Test cricketers of substance.
In the first innings of the ongoing Test, when Head was joined by Paine yesterday, it was an unlikely partnership to watch. Paine is a pretty batsman, plays all the classical shots in the book, with the movement of the body in sync with the shots he plays. In such a scenario, it was easy to take your eyes off Head and fix it with Paine, but the former was not in the mood to share any of his moments under the sun. The moment Paine was at the non-striker’s end, Head ensured his substance would triumph over style, his workmanlike batting would get the better of grace and it eventually did when he raised his bat to acknowledge applause from the packed MCG crowd.
Looking at it in hindsight, it was much deserving for Head. He might not have taken the world by storm as a Labuschagne did after being asked to replace Steve Smith at Lord’s. He has rather embraced the unpredictability of his position that somehow has gone to Matthew Wade after his Shield heroics. Fair enough, as Head would say, and worked hard to get to where he is now - a Boxing Day centurion.
The question about his future will, however, linger should he fail in Sydney. He will be the first man to be axed from the side when the team steps foot in Bangladesh for the upcoming Test series. However, for Head, it is the softening of the approach that has always worked which he did with utmost grace and functionality that doesn't always meet the eye. Push him to the corner and trust him to deliver the sucker punch.