AUSTRALIA’S HEAD MAN
Travis shapes up as next captain
It would be a stretch to say that Travis Head was a wild child but Australia’s Test captain inwaiting had a fair bit of growing up to do when he arrived on the scene as a teenage state cricketer in South Australia more than a decade ago.
Head’s former Redbacks teammate and now fellow World Cup winner Adam Zampa has a better idea than most about how some of Australia’s top cricketers have evolved over the years.
It is Head, who turns 30 on day four of the Boxing Day Test, who Zampa identifies as having had the “biggest transformation” of this group of Australian stars.
Zampa had moved to Adelaide to further his domestic career when he and Head moved into a rental property owned by the parents of senior teammate Callum Ferguson in the suburb of Prospect.
“Then we moved out a little while later because we were all going to play in England and ‘Fergie’ was like ‘just letting you know, real estate agent said you are not getting your bond back’. It was good times.”
For all that, Head was identified a long way out as a future leader of the Australian side.
Named state captain at just 21, he had been in the Test side for less than a year when first elevated to the vice-captaincy, before losing that position during a period in which he was in and out of the side.
But after a red-letter year in international cricket in which he was player of the match in three ICC finals, Head was this month reinstated as co-vicecaptain alongside Steve Smith and underneath Pat Cummins.
While nothing is guaranteed, Head’s age and the fact Cummins has said he wants to keep playing international cricket beyond his captaincy days have left Head as the frontrunner to take over.
“Travis is highly talented, highly skilful,” close and longtime teammate Alex Carey, who has captained Australia in one-day cricket, said over the weekend.
“Really, you know, hitting his straps in international cricket, which we all knew was coming.
“He’s had some standout performances, which we all know about. As a leader, I feel like his performances are speaking volumes as a leader.
“That’s a really good way to lead is, go out there and perform strongly, and he’s finding his voice among this group as well.
“He is tactically getting better every game and has been captain in South Australia for a lot of years. So he has a really calm head on his shoulders.
“There’s more upside to Travis as well. I feel like the consistency he’s showing is what’s going to take this group even further forward. But as a leader, there’s opportunity there one day to potentially, you know, step up.”
The roughness around the edges hasn’t quite gone away completely.
From a dirty moustache to the footage of his “yellow Wiggle” move that emerged on social media during Australia’s World Cup celebrations, Head has an everyman quality that endears him with fans and teammates alike.
“Just the personality he brings to the team is something that we all love and enjoy the way he plays his cricket,” Cummins said before this Test series. “There is a certain amount of freedom to it. He takes the game on, always has a smile on his face.”