After the MLC,Australia are scheduled to make a white-ball tour of Scotland and England in August and September,before the home international season starts with white-ball games against Pakistan and then five Tests against India. A Test tour of Sri Lanka follows in late January.
Australia’s leaders have reaped rich rewards from backing 30-year-old Head to play international cricket in his own,unbridled way since the start of the Ashes in 2021-22,but those successes have also meant a steady increase in the amount of cricket he plays.
At the time of that Ashes series,Head was not a part of either of the Australian white-ball teams,but as an all-format player he is now on call for more assignments than most – something that onlyDavid Warner,among other batters,managed to keep up for long periods over the past decade.
With Warner now retired from Tests,Head is the most explosive player in the Australian top six,but his returns over Australia’s most recent few Test series have been cause for some reflection,balanced to a degree with bowler-friendly pitches for many of those games.
So far in the current world Test championship cycle,Head has notched 631 runs at 28.68 with one century –against the West Indies at Adelaide Oval – across 12 matches. Over the previous two years,Head clattered 1389 runs at 55.56 in 18 Tests,with four centuries,including a coruscating innings against India in the WTC final at the Oval.
He followed last year’s Ashes tour with a rapid recovery from a broken hand to play a pivotal role inAustralia’s ODI World Cup victory in India,a performance that won him folk hero status in his homeland. He was also named as a Test team vice captain at the start of the summer.
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But some indifferent displays either side of the century in Adelaide are not what Australia’s selectors want to see this season in a vital match-up with India. The tourists have taken the Border-Gavaskar Trophy home with them on each of their past two visits,in 2018-19 and 2020-21.
Head and the selectors recognised his struggles during the Australian season,leading him to miss his customary January Big Bash League appearances for the Adelaide Strikers in an attempt to freshen up for the West Indies Tests.
“My biggest priority at the moment is Test cricket,” Head said before the Adelaide Test last summer. “I want to contribute for the Strikers,it was great they’re winning,great they’re in the finals.
“But with Test cricket the priority,I felt like I wasn’t giving myself the best chance in this Test match if I was to go out of the environment,go into another one,come back and have two days’ prep. So a few days off to re-energise and get a few things done,and hopefully I reap the benefits.”
Travis Head smashes a six in Australia’s win over England earlier in the T20 World Cup.Credit:Getty Images
Maxwell,meanwhile,revealed that Head complained of back trouble during his innings against Scotland in St Lucia,which helped ensure an Australian win and England’s progression to the next phase of the T20 World Cup.
“It just felt like our rhythm was all out,” Maxwell told ESPN. “When I got out there was an interesting sort of stage,Heady’s back was sort of flaring up a little bit and it could’ve gone each way.”