Travis shows that when in doubt, trust your Head
Since forever, there have been debates on what should influence particular decisions; should it be the head (or the mind) or the heart? Usually, it is said a combination of both works a charm.
The head because it analyzes and evaluates pros and cons, and then leads to better decision-making. The heart, because, well, that is what makes this human species what it is. Remove emotions, and everyone might be reduced to being machines, and the world would be much more mundane.
There is, of course, no real evidence to support any of this, but if you have lived long enough on this planet, you sort of get the point that is being made here.
Why are we exactly having this psychological discussion, though? That too hours after the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup? Hmm, not very sure, but stick along, just for the emotion, and trust the piece, it will make sense in the end (or rather it should).
Back to the cricket.
It’s November 19. Ahmedabad. The game that matters. Australia versus India in front of more than a hundred thousand fans. India have not gotten many in the first innings. 240 to be precise.
But there is still hope. The ball, usually, does crazy things under lights, and India have the best exponents to exploit it.
David Warner has been in these situations before. Playing the role of the antagonist and with thousands to silence. Travis Head, in contrast, is inexperienced. He only made his World Cup debut earlier in this edition, and while he has quickly become a vital cog in this Australian side, there is still a question mark over how he will fare when the pressure gets really amped up.
The first ball is bowled to Warner by Jasprit Bumrah, and it swings a mile. An absolute mile. Starts on the leg stump, finishes outside off, induces an outside edge – that sort of delivery. The only thing is the edge does not carry to either Shubman Gill, stood at second slip, or Virat Kohli, stationed at first slip. That neither really reacts, just adds to the tension.
The second ball swings away too, and Warner times it decently, enough to get it past cover point and collect three runs. Now, Head is on strike. If you look at experience, perhaps the weaker link. But if you have watched him bat at any point, across any format anywhere in the world in the last couple of years, you’d know he is someone India want to get rid of early.
Travis Head ripped India's famed bowling attack apart
Bumrah, knowing the left-handed opener struggles from around the wicket, switches over his angle immediately. The first ball is on a length outside off. Does all sorts but is left calmly by Head. Had this not been a final, he might have lashed at it. Could have flown for four. Could have flown to slip. We will never know.
The next ball is full, and just outside off. This time, Head springs into his stroke. Does not get a massive stride in, but just enough to glide through it beautifully. Hits flush in the middle of the bat, and it hurtles away to mid-off’s right.
Later in the over, Bumrah tries something similar. The 29-year-old does not time this one quite as sweetly, but still gets it through the off-side ring. Two boundaries in the over, and the early intention to dominate is there. Like it never left. The first-ball leave, if anything, was just to soak in the atmosphere, and understand what the ball was doing and what Bumrah was trying to lure him into.
Another example was the eighth over, bowled by Mohammed Shami. The opener played out a maiden, but it never felt he was not comfortable doing so. He was 10 off 21 balls at that point, had seen Warner and Mitchell Marsh depart, and had talked Steve Smith out of a review when DRS would have saved Smith.
Seems a very basic pun but the opener kept his calm and used his head when it probably would have been going around at a million miles per hour. When the ball was there to be defended, he defended. When it was there to be attacked, he attacked. When it was time to buckle down, he did so, and when it was time to let his hair down, he did that too.
And that cold-blooded mindset was the difference between Australia being World Cup winners or runners-up.
It is also worth noting that he was dropped for the first Test when Australia toured India earlier this year, citing his inability to play spin. Here he was, towering over both Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja in the World Cup final, often sitting deep in his crease, playing them off the pitch and deploying the slog sweep the moment they bowled in his arc.
Among the batting brilliance, do not forget the magnificent catch he took to dismiss Rohit Sharma – a wicket that evoked vibes of that game-changing Kapil Dev catch to dismiss Sir Viv Richards in the 1983 final. Or the two wickets he took against South Africa, and the way he made an eventually tricky run-chase easier by the sheer number of runs he scored at the start.
Those aspects, coupled with how he read the game and the moments superbly, now place him among Australian legends such as Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting – male players to have scored a century in a World Cup final. And alongside the late great Shane Warne as the only Australian male cricketer since 1999 to win the Player of the Match award in both the semi-final and the final of a World Cup.
These accolades, simply put, are what dreams are made of. Everyone, including Head, would have known how good he is, and how much of an impact he could have on Australia’s campaign.
Yet, even he might not have envisioned how single-handedly he bossed the moments that mattered, and how he made the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad feel like a library. Not the first time Head has broken Indian hearts this year either (World Test Championship final, anyone?).
That is why he is special. Not because of what he can do on any given day, but by how often he does it on days that really, really matter. How he can seamlessly flick between playing with his heart on his sleeve, and with a calm, composed head on his shoulders.
Perhaps that is why Australia were willing to wait on his fitness, rather than select a replacement in haste. As some would say, it was a combination of the emotion of not wanting a player of his quality to miss out and the more cold-blooded decision - that he is just what they want - that got Australia here. Into the promised land, where no other country can even dream of being.
Whenever in doubt then, listen to your heart but trust your head. Worked out for Australia. Worked out pretty fine for Travis too.