MELBOURNE: Four years after being dumped from the Australian team during a bleak period with the bat, Travis Head has risen to the top of the heap as a devastating power hitter in all three formats.

The popular left-hander was awarded the Allan Border Medal late on Monday as Australia’s top men’s cricketer in 2024, crushing second-placed paceman Josh Hazlewood in the voting.

The 31-year-old scored 1,427 runs across the three formats in the 12-month polling period starting with the drawn Test series against West Indies last January and ending with the recent 3-1 home series win over India.

Unable to attend the Australian Cricket Awards in Melbourne while on the Test squad’s tour of Sri Lanka, the no-frills South Australian accepted the medal from coach Andrew McDonald wearing a team polo shirt and shorts.

The low-key ceremony was fitting for a player who often seems a throwback to the 20th century when great Australian players wore moustaches and guzzled post-match beers.

Head has come to make the game look easy wherever thrown in the batting order, mixing middle order centuries in back-to-back Tests against India with fast runs as a white-ball opener.

His stocks as a part-time off-spinner have also risen; he contributed a couple of key wickets during the India series.

A few years ago, though, Head’s career was at a cross-roads when he was dropped during the 2020-21 home summer and went to English county team Sussex looking for runs.

“I had a pretty rough trot at it, went to Sussex, didn’t get that consistency that I was after, tried to play a certain way, didn’t work,” he told Australian media in Sri Lanka.

Head averaged 18.30 with the bat during his Sussex stint and returned home thinking he had to “pull (his) finger out” to get back into the Test team in time for the Ashes.

He said he made a conscious choice to go all-out as an attacking batter in Tests, having had mixed results when quashing his natural instincts.

The approach worked as he earned a recall for the 2021-22 Ashes and smashed a match-winning 152 off 148 balls in the series-opener at the Gabba.

It set the tone for Australia’s rollicking 4-0 win over England, with Head finishing top of the runs-list with 357 from six innings. Now an automatic selection for Australia in all formats and a team leader, Head is spoken of as a possible future captain.

Pat Cummins leads the Test and ODI teams, while all-rounder Mitchell Marsh is the T20 captain.

Head, who was also named Australia’s best player in ODIs at Monday’s awards night, said he was happy to “step in” as captain when called upon but was not eyeing the role permanently.

“I probably dont see it as a long-term thing,” he added. “Me and Pat (Cummins) are the same age, Pats doing a wonderful job.”

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2025