The secrets to Travis Head’s explosive top-order success

AUSTRALIA VS OMAN: MATCH CENTRE AND SCORECARD

Australia’s Travis Head will be the star attraction when the Aussies begin their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 campaign against Oman.

The Australian batter has made quite the impact in the shortest format of the game of late, and, following his explosive heroics in the Indian Premier League, he will be eager to steer Australia to a third ICC men’s title in the span of a year.

After being in and out of the Australian national team during the opening phase of his career, Head secured his place as a middle-order batter in the Test squad based on his ultra-attacking batting style.

But that aggressive style had been missing in the shortest format until late 2023. Head lit up the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 last year with a string of stunning knocks, and as a result was given a chance as an opener in T20Is as Australia looked to find a partner for David Warner at the top of the order.

This change worked wonders, and if anyone still had doubts about his credentials, Head dispelled them by taking the IPL by storm in the 2024 season. Forming a formidable partnership with Abhishek Sharma at the top of the Sunrisers Hyderabad order, Head scored 567 runs at a strike rate of over 190 while also maintaining an average of 40.

When asked about his transformation in the shortest format of the game, Head said: “In the team I’m trying to do a job that's necessary.

“I was lucky, I guess, that the game plan that the Sunrisers wanted and used was very similar to how we want to go about it here. So I guess for me, it was off the back of the T20 stuff I've done in the last 12 months in this team, trying to emulate the same sort of stuff.”

The left-hander further elaborated on the work he has done in trying to improve his game against spin bowling and backing his skillset.

“It's something that I guess is around training and whatnot in India that I had in the back of my mind, so the focus was to try to keep working on that part of things when you get outside the powerplay or in the powerplay.

“It's not going to happen every time, it's going to be challenging throughout this tournament, but the successes that I was able to have with what I'd worked on was nice.”

Head also spoke about his opening partner David Warner and their approach together at the top of the order.

“I think Dave and I, we have had some really strong partnerships together, faced a lot of different plans, teams that come at us differently.

“So, from Davey [Warner] and my perspective, going through who they (the opposition) potentially may have and then who we set up better at and who we feel like we've got a plan on and then we adjust from there – that is how it's normally worked.”

Finally when asked about his plans for this T20 World Cup as Australia look towards becoming the first team to hold all three major ICC trophies simultaneously, Head talked about “peaking at the right time” like the team did in India last year.

“I think we did that really well in the ODI World Cup,” the left-handed opener said.

“So we want to get everything right in these first few games and make sure we're in the right position to accelerate in the back half of the tournament.”

An intriguing Group B fixture against England in Barbados awaits Australia following their tournament opener against Oman at the same venue, with matches against Namibia and Scotland making up their group schedule.