Travis Head, Australia’s new Ashes hero and the magic of the moustache

It is enough to make any self-respecting English cricket fan go weak at the knees. An Australian menace with a luxurious moustache wreaking Ashes havoc and wrecking dreams.

From Ian Chappell’s intimidating, no-nonsense, all-sledging force of the 1970s through to icons such as Dennis Lillee, Max Walker, Merv Hughes and Mitchell Johnson, the moustache has had something of a cultural cache in Australian cricket.

It is more than just facial hair.

It is not just bowlers, either. David Boon’s ‘mo’ was as magnificent as they come and was in keeping with the stereotypical image of a hard-bitten Australian cricketer supposedly capable of sinking 52 cans of lager on the long plane journey to the 1989 Ashes. Boon, clad in his green Australian blazer, still attended the squad press call upon arrival. A little over two months later, he hit the boundary that regained the tourists the Ashes.

Now there is a new moustachioed hero — a man who appears something of a throwback to that 1970s era of moustaches and beer, but a batter capable of the most modern and breathless stroke-play, as England found to their cost in the first Test.

Travis Head has been described as ‘that bogun from Gawler’, but the slang term associated with working-class Australian culture is used in the most affectionate way towards the boy from north Adelaide who has become one of the best batters in the world.

Not that he is always mentioned when discussions turn to the modern greats. Attention tends to focus instead on the established big four in Steve Smith, Joe Root, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson, or the pretenders Harry Brook and Yashashvi Jaiswal.

That will surely change now after the 31-year-old’s extraordinary match-winning century, off just 69 balls in Perth; an innings described by the great former Australian captain Ricky Ponting on Channel Seven’s coverage as “one of the best in Ashes history”.

That has been reflected in the 31-year-old’s newfound status as an Australian Ashes hero.

The Sunday Times tabloid, published in Perth, heralded “Travball” ahead of what would have been day three of the first Test, adding: “Sensational Head turns the tables on pathetic Poms”. The back page of the Adelaide Advertiser, in Head’s hometown, referred to him as “Australia’s new Ashes immortal” and declared: “Build him a statue”.

They rejigged the masthead as The Travertiser for good measure.

Perhaps Head’s old-fashioned demeanour has led him to previously go a little under the radar, certainly outside Australia. But his record shows he deserves to be ranked in the highest company, a man for the big occasion and the great match-defining innings, as opposed to a consistently great scorer of runs.

He was the highest run-scorer in the last Ashes in Australia, making centuries in the first and last Tests of that Covid-affected series, and then twice broke Indian hearts on the biggest stages in 2023, smashing 163 off 174 balls in the World Test Championship final at the Oval and 137 off 120 balls in the 50-over World Cup final in Ahmedabad.

Now he has played arguably the best innings of the lot.

At Perth Stadium, in a low-scoring, bowler-dominated opening Test where only one batter had managed to reach 50 across three innings, Head made 123 off 83 balls in the final session of day two after Australia had been set 205 to win, propelling with gusto everything England could throw at him: full and straight, short and wide.

There is no way England underestimated Head — captain Ben Stokes identified him as the Australian most likely to Bazball England’s Bazballers ahead of the 2023 Ashes — but their plans for him, particularly their insistence on bowling short, came up, well, short.

The contrast in Head’s appearance and batting style is emphasised by former Australian captain and renowned coach Greg Chappell, who, in his recently released book The Chappell Chronicles, calls Head the prototype of the modern batsman.

“The essence of Travis’ batting lies in his uncluttered mind,” writes Chappell. “He has chosen a path which prioritises intent over caution, a mindset which allows him to approach every ball with the aim of scoring runs.

“What sets Head apart is his ability to blend aggression with elegance. I believe he is the most improved player in the world over the past three years.”

No one knows Head better than the great former Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie, who coached his fellow South Australian at Adelaide Strikers and then signed him both for Yorkshire and Sussex to provide him with his two stints in English county cricket.

Gillespie was a proud observer at the Perth Stadium in his role as a commentator with ABC as his protege took England apart. And, like Ponting, he has no doubts about just how good the knock that has already rocked England’s Ashes ambitions was.

“That was one of the two greatest innings in Ashes history,” Gillespie tells The Athletic. “There was Beefy in 1981 (Ian Botham at Headingley) and now this one from Travis.

“This is up there because of the context of the game and the fact that Usman Khawaja was injured and Travis took it upon himself to take first strike.

“He’s a team-mate of Jake Weatherald, at (the Big Bash League T20 franchise) Adelaide Strikers, and they’re good mates, so it would have helped Jake to have a familiar face with him walking out for that second innings. Travis just said: ‘I’m the senior player, I’m taking first ball’, and I’ve got a lot of respect for him for that.

“He was helped, of course, by the way England bowled with this short-ball plan.

“Trav actually said to me after play: ‘I knew they would come in with bouncers. They’re really predictable, England’. I’m glad they did because those balls on fourth stump, off stump line on a good length, were the hardest to face and they just didn’t test Trav enough. They missed a massive trick.

“I’ve heard the rhetoric coming out of the England camp that they were beaten by the innings of a lifetime, and yes, don’t get me wrong, it was a wonderful innings.

“But the bowling plans of England were poor and they allowed Trav to free up and play shots. The key difference was that he played to his strengths and they let him do that. He waited until he got the length he wanted and that’s when he punished them.”

Gillespie had no doubt he was working with someone special when he first linked up with Head in the mid-2010s.

“He’s a ripper,” says Gillespie. “He’s a lot of fun, Trav, and doesn’t take himself or life too seriously. When he’s switched on, he’s on, and he knows when to switch up and down. Trav is a master of that.

“I loved working with him from the moment I met him. He’s a very positive lad. He likes to move the game forward and drive the game. He can do that. The thing he does well is play to his strengths and that’s the key. He’s very selfless. It’s all about the team.

“He’s a world-class player now, no doubt. You can look at averages, and his is absolutely fine (42.34 in 61 Tests), but he plays match-defining and series-defining innings.

“We saw it at the World Cup final a couple of years ago when he bossed India. We saw it here. He took the game by the scruff of the neck and that’s how he operates. Not many players in the world can do this.”

Gillespie, another Aussie icon with a penchant for a ‘mo’ in his heyday, had no hesitation in recommending Head when he became a coach in county cricket in 2016.

“I was talking to Andrew Gale (the former Yorkshire captain) about this after the Perth Test,” says Gillespie. “He is here coaching with the Australian A side and we had a laugh about how Trav first came to Headingley.

“I said to Andrew: ‘Do you remember the conversation we had about Travis?’. Yorkshire were a little unsure about whether he was any good; they just didn’t know much about him, and I assured them that the kid could play, and he then did well for Yorkshire.

“As I said to both Yorkshire and Sussex when I got him to play for them (in 2020): ‘Just trust me, I know a little bit about the game and the best players. This lad can play’.

“It was the same when I was first at Yorkshire and I signed a young Mitchell Starc. He was a young kid and they questioned that, but I said: ‘This kid can bowl’. He started off slow and they weren’t sure, but he ended up being the leading wicket-taker in the T20 Blast in 2012. So we got that one right as well.”

An Englishman has played a big role in Head’s later development.

Ash Wright, the brother of England selector Luke, became Sussex batting coach at a pivotal time in the Australian’s career when he headed to Hove to work on his game after losing his national contract.

“He was brilliant to work with,” says Wright. “He was very open to people talking to him and making suggestions. There was no ego to him.

“Travis makes his own decisions, but he wasn’t one of those you’re reluctant to talk to about his batting. If I saw something, I felt quite comfortable in talking to him about it and trying to help him. He was open to taking on information, but then he made up his own mind on how he wanted to go about it. For instance, he worked very hard on his game against the short ball and we could see that paying off in Perth.

“My role was really to reinforce the things he did well so that he could repeat them. However good someone is, they’re still human and need support. People think when a player has got to that level they should just leave them alone and no one actually helps them.

“So a lot of the time it’s about telling them what they do well within their technique and reinforcing what they are doing when they are playing well.”

As with everyone spoken to by The Athletic, Wright was impressed with Head the man.

“He’s a really good, humble bloke,” says Wright. “He’s top drawer, one of the lads, and he just works really hard on his cricket and keeps things very simple. But, typically of Aussies, he’s a tough little b****r as well.

“When he steps over the line, he’s got that little bit of extra fight. He puts a lot of preparation into who he’s facing and never underestimates any bowler. He just plays the situation and, as he showed in Perth, whatever is asked, he will go out and give it a go.”

Wright again helped Head two years ago when he headed to Hove, along with their new overseas player, Steve Smith, to work on his game in English conditions ahead of that summer’s Ashes.

“It was a bit controversial because it was said by some that we were helping Australia before they played England,” says Wright. “And we did get some stick over it.

“There was one time when Trav had people shouting abuse — friendly abuse, I should say — from the side of the nets at Hove at him, but he took it in his stride.

“What people should remember is, for us as a club, it was extremely beneficial to have Trav and Steve Smith with us because they helped our young players so much, and that has to be good for English cricket. So many of our players learnt from them and they still talk about having those guys at the club now. Trav was very important to us.

“Trav has got English heritage — just like Steve Smith has — and we used to tell him all the time that he should be playing for England. But there was no chance of that. They had zero interest in playing for England. Both of them are as Aussie as they come.”

The only question now is whether Head will continue opening the innings in the second Test next week in Brisbane, as he does in one-day cricket, or go back to where he has had so much success at No 5.

“They will look at the fitness of Usman Khawaja (who suffered back spasms at Perth) and all their options, but let’s be honest, it’s going to be hard not to keep him at the top of the order now,” adds Gillespie. “That could spell the end of Usman’s Test career, but at some point, they have to move on from him anyway.

“My personal opinion is that it’s hard not to bat Travis at the top.”

And that, together with the imposing Head moustache, is a sight England will not want to see when they walk out at the Gabba for the second Test.