Travis Head Leads Allan Border Medal Race; Trio Competes for Belinda Clark

Head magic saves Aussies from bad luck | 01:06

Australia’s big-moment dynamo Travis Head shapes as the firm favourite to win the Allan Border Medal as a reward for 24 months of dominance across all three formats.

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The left-hander struck 1427 runs across all formats during the year-long eligibility period which was an impressive 621 more than second-best Steven Smith.

This year’s stretch started for Head in a run-filled series against the West Indies and finished with a blistering Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign.

Head hit four hundreds during the period, including the two series-shaping tons against India.

He was the only batter to average over 50 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and was rare kryptonite for player of the summer Jasprit Bumrah.

If he wins the top gong, he’ll become the first South Australian to achieve the feat.

Australia great Brad Haddin said Head’s ascendancy had been a steady climb for the past two years, noting his big moments in the World Test Championship and World Cup finals in 2023.

“I don’t think it’s just been 12 months with Travis Head, I think he’s grown into a wonderful cricketer over the past couple of years,” he said.

Travis Head celebrates one of his four centuries this Allan Border Medal period. (Photo by Michael ERREY / AFP)Source: AFP

“We’ve seen last night (Wednesday’s first innings against Sri Lanka) how adaptable he is in his game and I think the thing now is he’s added maturity.

“We’ve always known him as a matchwinner but now he’s added a lot of maturity to his game, he wins a lot of the big moments for Australia.

“You only have to go through the last 12 months, every big event, Travis Head’s name is at the top.”

Head won the Shane Warne Test player of the year in 2022 but has not won it again or the One-Day International player of the year since.

Haddin praised captain Pat Cummins and coach Andrew McDonald for letting Head play his natural game irrespective of the game situation.

“He’s (Head) just an out and out matchwinner and I think he’s allowed to be that,” Haddin said.

“I think Patty and the staff deserve a lot of credit for the way they’ve handled him, allowing him to go out and win matches.

“At times it won’t work, we haven’t seen much of that, but they’ve allowed him to go out and be the player he wanted to be and now we’re seeing some unbelievable rewards.”

Travis Head Leads Allan Border Medal Race; Trio Competes for Belinda Clark

Pat Cummins looms as a potential rival to Head for the medal after a strong finish to the eligibility period.

Haddin kept wicket to Cummins and says his insatiable appetite to “make life hard work” for batters is what makes him a great.

“You talk about the greats of the game like (Glenn) McGrath and how they build pressure, I think Patty’s biggest strength is his appetite to build pressure, challenge both sides of the bat and make life hard work (for batters),” he said.

“The one thing I like the most about Patty is he knows how to bowl in moments, he knows how to go up gears if the game needs it, that’s a tough trait to have, especially as captain.

“His biggest strength is his ability to recognise moments and be able to step up.”

This year’s Belinda Clark Award shapes as one of the tightest yet, with the winner a chance to edge in front during the historic day-night Ashes Test at the MCG.

Two-time winners Ashleigh Gardner and Beth Mooney are in contention once again while Annabel Sutherland could take out the award for the first time.

Gardner’s 2024 campaign in one-day cricket alone included a sub-20 average with the ball and her maiden international century with the bat.

Mooney, meanwhile, scored 850 international runs at an average of 36 across 2024.

Those numbers, while not all in the eligibility period, are even more impressive considering over half of them were scored in the Twenty20 format.

Mooney finished the eligibility period with a flurry, scoring 213 runs in Australia’s three Twenty20 wins over England and a clinical century in the MCG Test.

Mooney’s first Test hundred, but sixth international ton overall, made her the first Australian female to score a century in all three formats.

Gardner and Mooney have alternated as winners of the award for the past four years.

If either of Gardner or Mooney is to take out the award for the third time, they would become the third three-time winner alongside greats Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning.

Annabel Sutherland will have the weight of Test match votes on her side after scoring a double century and 163 in the only two four-day matches of the eligibility period.

Sutherland broke a selection of records when she scored her third Test match hundred on Friday, including becoming the first female to score a Test ton at the iconic venue.