Travis Head: Australia's free-spirited, non-plussed giant killer

It wouldn't have mattered if it wasn't the World Cup final. It wouldn't have mattered if it wasn't the most colossal stadium in world cricket. It wouldn't have mattered if it wasn't the most partisan crowd that the finale of a world event had been played in front of. It wouldn't have mattered if he wasn't up against the best white-ball attack in the world. It wouldn't have mattered if he wasn't playing one of the greatest knocks in the history of ODI cricket on the biggest stage of them all.

The thing is that it was the World Cup final. It was at the most colossal stadium in world cricket. It was the most partisan crowd that the finale of a world event had been played in front of. It was the best white-ball attack in the world. And Travis Head was playing one of the greatest knocks in the history of ODI cricket on the biggest stage of them all.

But he could well have been at the Karen Rolton Oval on a spring afternoon in November, with around 150 people in attendance, playing a Marsh Cup one-day game. Head would still have done what he did on Sunday (November 19) night in Ahmedabad. And still looked rather non-plussed about it. But that's just the Travis Head way.

On the eve of the World Cup final though, as he left the practice area at the Narendra Modi Stadium, walked up, and began talking about the dryness of the pitch and how it reminded him of the Test pitch in Indore, you couldn't help but look a tad surprised that this was coming from him. As if reading your mind, the South Australian had smiled, and sounding more like him said something to the effect of, "It's not like I ever bother too much about looking down at the pitch. My eyes are only on the ball and where I want to hit it." Then as if pleased with having provided probably the best description of his batting ever, he smiled and walked away.

That in many ways does sum up Travis Head the batter. He bats like he talks, with incredible honesty, at a rate where he always seems to be in a hurry and the words-per-minute are as high as his strike-rate with the bat, and with an air of being completely at ease with who he is and always has been. That in a nutshell is Travis Head the man too.

Like how on a day, he played a knock that will be etched in Australian cricket folklore, it was he who brought up his early travails against Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami and spoke about that period resembling one of his self-confessed "terrible" net sessions. Or the manner in which he revealed to have started thinking about the 10-year and 20-year reunions of his knock, and more importantly Australia's sixth World Cup win, even while he was in the middle facing the likes of Bumrah & Co.

Not to forget his celebration after getting to three-figures, which had more to do with his teammates teasing him for having, in their opinion, overdone a send-off to Heinrich Klaasen in the last game, rather than the significance of what he'd just pulled off. Or calling Rohit Sharma "unlucky" for having fallen to the best catch that the South Australian has ever taken in international cricket. Only Travis Head.

That honesty with his batting comes through in the way he reacts to being beaten outside his off-stump, like he was on numerous occasions in the first few overs as the new-balls hooped around under lights in Ahmedabad. You'd see him put his hand out, mimic the movement of the ball with it, then turn it up as to say, "I couldn't have done much with it". Ask him about it later, and he'd say the same to you. The fact that he's able to do this genuinely is another factor that makes him

It's the same with when he does play a shot and connects with it the way only he can. There are never any half measures. He either gets beaten completely or he beats the ball up with complete disdain. There are only those two outcomes most times. As was the case during his breathtaking knock in front of 92,000 Indian fans who looked away every time, he did pull off a customary square-cut or a slog-sweep.

The left-hander has created a reputation for himself in the last 22 or so months of being the crisis-man for Australia, especially in Test cricket where he's now played a number of awe-inspiring knocks. Like the one in the WTC final against the Indians at The Oval.

None of those had come under the kind of pressure his team was under once Head told Steve Smith that he was "plumb" and that there was no point in the senior batter reviewing the LBW call against him. At 47 for 3, the Indian team had found their momentum, a billion Indian fans had found their voice. Like it had been all the way through the lead-up to the big final, this was back to being the stage for India's crowning glory.

If only Head was the sorts to get overawed or even impacted by the magnitude of the stage. He just continued doing what he's always done. Look up, see the ball and hit it if he thought it was there to be hit.

Head's after all no stranger to being in the limelight either. He has had to carry the load of his state team on his shoulders for nearly a decade, despite not yet being 30. And like Pat Cummins would say about him in the wake of his whirlwind knock, the 29-year-old has always carried it with a smile. He's always played his cricket with a smile. No wonder he's always been such a popular member of every dressing-room he's been a part of. No wonder the Australian team was prepared to go into a major event with only 14 fit players and rely on Head to come good at the halfway stage of the tournament. No wonder they were confident that he would be the guy who'd make the difference when time came for the title to be decided.

There's a ripple effect too for him being at the top of the order. Because Travis Head is always Travis Head, it allows for Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne to be Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, regardless of what the situation of the match is. It's Head's presence at the other end that allowed Labuschagne to play what he described as a sort of "Test innings". It's Head's ability to break the game, even on the trickiest of pitches, that had got Australia this far, having played a vital hand in the powerplay to set up the close win against South Africa in the semi-final.

It's a penchant he's had from his grassroot days, of breaking games and creating anti-climactic finishes as a result. He's always done it with a free-spirit and the inherent belief that being himself will get him through, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Head has never been under any illusion of having the proverbial grace of a left-hander. He's always the first to admit. He's spoken about looking at himself playing shots in the mirror just to make sure. Not that he isn't an attractive or an entertaining batter to watch when he gets going. For, there's a level of audacity to his batting that sets him apart, like his flick off a Bumrah slower delivery that has got so many batters in trouble during the World Cup, just because India's strike bowler missed his length by a small margin. Or the fact that he was ready to go down on one knee and slog-sweep Kuldeep Yadav, who's been the joint-best spinner in the tournament, against the turn to the biggest boundary on the ground. Or flat-bat the skiddy Mohammed Siraj over mid-off with a horizontal bat. For Head, it was simply a case as always of look up, see the ball and hit it. And so he did, again and again, breaking more Indian hearts each time he did it, completely shutting out, literally, the moment, the crowd and the noise.

The World Cup final was just the setting. The full-house Narendra Modi Stadium was just the stage. Travis Head was just being himself. For, Travis Head is always just himself.