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Opinion
Travis Head feels like he’s been a player of potential for Australia for more than a decade yet he’s still yet to convert that into a permanent spot.
Maybe he will always be one of those players who is never able to string enough performances together in the Test, one-day or T20 arenas to ever be seen as set in stone on the teamsheet.
He’s getting another shot at the ODI side on Thursday night in his home town of Adelaide as the first choice to replace retired skipper Aaron Finch as David Warner’s opening partner.
After the three-match series against England, he will then turn his attention to securing his spot in the Test team yet again.
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It looked like he had nailed down the No.5 spot after winning the Compton-Miller Medal for his two tons in the Ashes rout of England last summer.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
But he is now again under pressure to prove his credentials in the five-day format after a string of low scores across the five Tests in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
To his credit, Head has never shied away from the scrutiny that comes with being in the Australian team and is determined to make a good fist of facing the new white ball in the 50-over format.
“It’s going to be exciting. Hopefully I get a nice crack at it. Hopefully, I take my opportunities,” he said.
He sounds hopeful, you might say.
“I’ve had a little bit of a chance to do it in the past. There’s no real difference (opening). For me you’ve got to respect the new ball, it’s still going to swing,” he said.
“You’ve still got to be able to try to put some pressure back on them with a couple (of fielders) out in the power play. Try and get the team off to a good start.
“I’m lucky at the other end to have someone who’s pretty dangerous as well. We’ll try and feed off each other, the times when we’ve done it together we’ve done it really well.
“I’ve tried to be as adaptable as I can from 1-6. The Australian cricket team is a very difficult team to get into and you want to give yourself as many opportunities.”
He said he feels like his career has “come full circle” after starting his one-day career with South Australia as an opener.
Still only 28, if it seems like Head has been around forever it’s because he’s been getting plenty of attention since he was fast-tracked into South Australia’s Sheffield Shield side as an 18-year-old in 2011-12.
He became the Redbacks’ youngest captain a few years later, aged 21, and led them to the Shield final in his first season in charge.
Head boosted his leadership credentials further when he took over as skipper of the Adelaide Strikers in 2017 and promptly led them to their inaugural BBL title.
Travis Head celebrates his century during day one of the fifth Test. (Photo by Matt Roberts – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
The left-hander had a brief taste of an official leadership role with the national team when he was one of two vice-captains alongside Pat Cummins under Tim Paine during the 2019-20 season.
His name has often been brought up as a potential future national captain but it’s never been the Australian way to appoint a leader who doesn’t automatically command a spot in the side.
And that’s the knock on Head – he made his Test debut in 2018, has played 28 matches but with four tons and eight half-centuries in his 1601 runs at 39.04, he hasn’t done enough to save himself from a tap on the shoulder by selectors on several occasions.
His haul of 91 runs from his past five Tests at 15.17 means he probably has the two Tests against the Windies to find form or he could lose his spot to in-form Victorian Peter Handscomb.
“I’ve still got to be positive, still got to score. I felt like I moved really well but I didn’t get runs,” he said when asked about his meagre returns in the Test arena on the two Asian tours.
“A lot of good players have gone over and not done particularly well in their first couple of series. For me it’s about learning as much as I can, adapting as much as I can, working extremely hard. You can’t look too far ahead. I’ve got to have a really good summer and make sure I play really well in Australia.”
He will enter the Windies series with scratchy Shield form as well – 107 runs at 21.4 from three matches with the lion’s share of those runs coming from a single innings of 76 at the Adelaide batting paradise.
(Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)
In the ODI arena, he’s been in and out of the side since his debut in the Caribbean midway through 2016 for 1583 runs at 37.69 in 48 matches.
Head has only hit two centuries but both came when coming out to face the new ball. He averages 45.53 as an opener as opposed to 33.33 from his 30 innings ranging from three to seven in the order.
He missed the Top End series against Zimbabwe and New Zealand a couple of months to attend the birth of his first child.
Funnily enough he first came into the Australian side as a T20 hitter at the start of 2016 but after failing to make his mark in his first 16 appearances, he’s only been picked in the shortest format once in the past four years when he filled in for a depleted side in Pakistan in April.
It’s unlikely the selectors will give him another crack in the T20 team which is unfortunate because he could have been an ideal candidate to take over as captain from Finch in that format.
The upcoming three-match ODI series against England will not count for much in the grand scheme of things – like most bilateral series these days – but if Head wants the chance to be part of the team that tries to take the trophy from the same opponents next October in India, it’s crucial he makes the most of this opportunity.
Otherwise, the selectors will start to look around at younger options and be extremely reluctant to give Head yet another chance to live up to the potential with which he’s been tantalising us all without ever satisfying the Australian team’s insatiably high standards for permanent selection.