Travis Head is enjoying opening the innings in Australia’s Test whites and wants to continue doing so in long-format cricket.
Given an opportunity due to a teammate’s injury, Head has almost reinvented himself. Once a middle-order batter in Tests, he has now established himself as an opener and is keen to carry on in that role going forward.
Head has opened in seven of the eight innings across the four Tests played so far in the ongoing Ashes. With a series of impressive performances, he has nearly cemented his place at the top of the order. The man whose injury created the opening, Usman Khawaja, is now batting at No. 5 after returning to the XI.
In white-ball cricket, Head has regularly opened for Australia. However, in Tests, most of his runs and centuries have come at No. 5. Even before this Ashes, Australia had planned to use him in the middle order.
Those plans changed in the very first Test of the series. Khawaja was unable to open in Perth due to back stiffness, while Marnus Labuschagne failed to make an impact when he opened in the first innings. Head then produced a destructive century in the run chase, guiding Australia to a memorable victory.
Since then, the left-hander has been opening alongside Jack Weatherald, consistently giving Australia strong starts. In the third Test in Adelaide, Head played a magnificent 170-run innings, helping Australia win the match by 82 runs and retain the Ashes.
Even in the Melbourne Test, which Australia lost inside two days, Head was the top scorer in the second innings with 46. He is also the leading run-scorer of the series so far with 437 runs, with no other batter even reaching 300.
Speaking on Sunday, Head said he is thoroughly enjoying batting at the top of the order.
“I’m enjoying opening the batting. I feel like I’ve settled into the role really well. Being able to contribute to the team in different ways is very satisfying.”
Weatherald, meanwhile, has made his international debut in this Ashes series. While he is yet to produce a big performance, he has shown glimpses of his potential. He scored 72 in the pink-ball Test in Brisbane and has accumulated 146 runs in eight innings.
Head believes the 31-year-old is good enough to succeed at the international level and wants him to continue as his opening partner.
“I think he’s good enough to play international cricket. From my point of view, he’s shown plenty of glimpses of his ability in his first four Tests.”
The fifth and final Test between Australia and England will begin in Sydney next Sunday.
