Two years ago, there wasn’t room for Travis Head in Australia’s ODI team.
David Warner and Aaron Finch occupied the opening slots, with the South Australian only playing six ODIs between January 2019 and October 2022 despite scintillating form at domestic level.
Finch’s retirement in late 2022 opened the door for Head’s return to the national 50-over side – and the left-hander has hardly put a foot wrong since.
Over the last two years, Head has accumulated 968 ODI runs at 64.53 with a strike rate of 124.58, including four centuries and four fifties. He led Australia to World Cup glory last year with a career-defining 137 in the final against India, silencing the vocal Ahmedabad crowd.
And on Thursday evening, the South Australian cracked a career-best 154* from 129 deliveries against England in Trent Bridge to help the tourists chase a 316-run target with six overs to spare.
“He’s a serious player,” England interim coach Marcus Trescothick said of Head during the post-match press conference.
“The form he’s in and the way he’s going about his work is very tough for us. You can see how good a player he is and the impact he has had on all the games.
“If he gets in and gets momentum going, he’s hard to bowl at, for sure. Eventually the worm will turn and hopefully we get on top of that and get a bit of luck on the other side.”
Australia's Travis Head celebrates. Photo by Darren Staples / AFP
Head’s T20 form has been just as impressive, if not more so. He’s currently No. 1 on the ICC men’s T20I batting rankings, smacking 1685 runs at 37.44 with an eye-watering strike rate of 176.25 since the start of last year.
After being dropped from the Test side and missing a national contract in 2021, Head has developed into Australia’s most consistent multi-format cricketer and one of the most feared openers in the white-ball formats.
However, Head’s glittering ODI and T20 form has fuelled speculation on whether he should open the batting in the Test arena this summer.
It appears increasingly unlikely that teammate Steve Smith will face the new ball against India this summer, with Australian coach Andrew McDonald suggesting Usman Khawaja’s opening partner will come from within the incumbent starting XI.
And there is a growing sense that Head could replicate the feats of Warner by opening in all three formats.
“I feel like Travis Head might be best suited (to opening in Tests),” Khawaja told Fox Cricket last week.
“He’s obviously been very successful opening the batting in one-day cricket and, breaking it down, I’d probably lean towards him.
“The confidence transfers over. When you’re seeing the ball well, scoring lots of runs and not much is going through your head, it’s a great place to be.”
Head has opened the batting before at Test level, albeit only for three matches during last year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign in India after Warner suffered a hand injury. During a series where most of Australia’s batters struggled for consistency, Head notched 223 runs at 55.75 in five knocks.
Shifting the 30-year-old up to open in Tests would allow Smith to return to his preferred No. 4 position, but national selectors may be reluctant to part ways with Head’s counterattacking style in the middle order.
When asked about the potential of opening the batting in Tests this summer, Head confirmed he was aware of the brewing speculation.
“Keep the chatter, it makes it interesting,” Head smirked.
“I’m not going to dive into that. I’ll just let that play out.”
The second ODI between England and Australia gets underway at Headingley on Saturday, with the first ball scheduled for 8pm AEST.
