Travis Head’s devastating blow leaves the Australian selectors in a dilemma

AAccidents don’t get much happier. Usman Khawaja’s mid-match back problem was annoying for the player and potentially damaging to his team, until it wasn’t. Clearing the regular dry-powder opener opened up space in the final stanza of the Perth Test, allowing Travis Head to finish off England with the bloody certainty and splatter count of a Mortal Kombat lethal attack. Sometimes you mash the buttons and it all just works.

Consider an Ashes innings of 123 from 83 balls, on a bouncy pitch where two other players nudged 50, in an effort that not only won the match but sent the opposition into a demoralizing tailspin. The accidental success therefore creates a dilemma about what to do next.

Khawaja may not be deemed fit for the second Test, but if he is, should that be enough to reassure the selectors that his injury won’t return? And even if they think he’s ready, should that be enough reason to keep him?

During two years of uncertainty over Australia’s final opening, Head has been a regular suggestion from some quarters. It made sense: there is a lack of a highly qualified candidate at national level, his history of flourishing in seam conditions and him already doing that job in both white-ball teams. His performance in Perth turned that rumble into a roar.

Before we state this matter as self-evident, it may be worth assessing how impressive his performance was in a historic match. Despite the relatively low target, only eight greater Ashes scores have been achieved in a successful fourth innings: the combined efforts of Don Bradman and Arthur Morris in pursuit of the world record 404; hundreds on separate tours by the great opening pair of Herbert Sutcliffe and Jack Hobbs; the Ben Stokes 2019 miracle at Headingley; Mark Butcher’s more subdued version on the same ground 18 years earlier; and innings from Australian Joe Darling and England’s Jack Brown.

These are all also dwarfed by Head’s strike percentage of 148. Even the lightning-quick closing stages of the Stokes innings took his total score to just 62. Nine Ashes tons was faster than a run-a-ball and the one that was faster than Head’s was Adam Gilchrist’s Waca declaration. There have been five quicker centuries in all of Test cricket and you can be sure that none of them have been made in the fourth innings of a match. In terms of context, there is no equal.

Accordingly, the probability says that you cannot pick this player expecting a similar inning to happen again. We’ve already seen the one that would define most careers. If Head tries to repeat the magic, there is a risk that his attention will be diverted and he may attack too hard at the wrong time. Especially in a Pink Ball Test, teeing off in the first innings in Brisbane would probably be much riskier than in the fourth innings in Perth. Khawaja has shown there are several ways to counter this threat, such as his long, patient 145 against South Africa with a pink ball in Adelaide in 2016, batting for more than seven hours to register a victory.

There is also a strong argument that opening is a position of specialist risk and that Head has already won many important games for Australia from No. 5. Placing him lower in the rankings means his gifts are less subject to the danger of the moving ball at the top. With Jake Weatherald the new occupant of one opening spot, it’s fair to say Australia has no need for two feisty left-handers to take on the bowling duties from ball one.

No matter how sensible your position is, it can now be washed away by sheer momentum. Anyone who watched that innings in Perth will want to know what happens when Head pushes another set of buttons. If this innings were to define the careers of most players, it could make it into the top five for Head. Maybe from here there is room to expand that to a top 10?

It is sometimes reasonable to be greedy. As Australia weighs its options, the sensible approach says no. The impulsive one says: that was fun, let’s do that again.