Mature Head at ease with life after scintillating century

Head married long-time partner Jessica in April this year and the pair had been honeymooning around Europe in the lead-up to the one-off World Test Championship Final at The Oval that the left-hander put his stamp on with a tremendous individual knock on Wednesday.

The dynamic No.5 came to the crease with the game evenly poised at 76/3, before unleashing a brilliant display of attacking batting that helped him compile an unbeaten knock of 146* that put Australia in firm control at 327/3 at stumps.

It was Head's sixth century overall and his first outside of Australia and the 29-year-old revealed he was now more settled off the field and this had helped translate to his excellent recent run of form.

"I'm in a nice little period of my life I guess as well off field," Head said after play.

"They are just all merging into clarity and consistency and that's what we've asked for as a team and it's a very enjoyable team to play for.

"Obviously, I like to enjoy myself. We all know the right moments to do that and the right moments to knuckle down."

Head hit 22 fours during his innings and even cleared the boundary with a cheeky little late cut over the slips, combining with veteran batter Steve Smith (95*) for an unbroken stand of 251 that swung the momentum of the game towards his side after India's pacers made a bright start.

Head said discussions between overs between himself and Smith were often very short, but he revealed that he does enjoy batting alongside the former Australia captain.

"Yeah, we don't talk too much," Head said.

"I've always said that I do really enjoy batting with Steve because of how much attention he receives.

"He is one of the best players in the world, one of our best, probably our best player.

"He's our best batter and unbelievable in these conditions and he receives so much attention from the opposition in terms of plans and how difficult it is to bowl to.

"I’ve always felt like and I've always said going out to bat with him it feels like you're in the shadow of that and you can sort of sneak under the radar and go about your business because he's drawn so much attention and it felt like that again today, it felt like he wasn't going to go anywhere.

“He was at the other end and sort of got in that rhythm and just went about business.

"A lot of balls that he may play or play out is a lot different to me so I think we complement each other completely differently but in the partnership it works really nicely."

It was arguably the finest knock of Head's career to date, but hasn't always been this plain sailing as the South Australian was surprisingly left out of Australia’s side for the first Test against India in February.

While seemingly now secure in Australia's Test XI after a strong finish to that Border-Gavaskar series and a scintillating start to the World Test Championship Final, Head is more at ease with his position as he knows just how much depth his team have in their batting department.

"That's all out of my control," Head said.

"All I can do is try and be as consistent as I can be on the field and off the field and enjoy myself.

"It's a bloody enjoyable team to play under and play with. Yes I would love to play every single Test match, but that's not always going to be the case.

"I think that gives you good perspective to moments like this and the lead up and the prep to be as relaxed as you can.

"Hopefully I don't get dropped too much in the future but it's going to inevitably happen, so it doesn't bother me."