ESPNcricinfo Awards 2023 men's Test batting winner: Head for the edge

Before June of 2023, arguably Australia's greatest side had not yet won the ODI World Cup and had lost their last four Test series against India, two of them at home. What kind of an all-time side was this that couldn't go past India or win a World Cup?

The two home series losses against India will always rankle, but Australia had a truly great attack of three big fast bowlers, each different from the others, and one of the greatest offspinners of all time. They had been unbeaten at home, other than against India, for a long time. They had been the only side to challenge India in India, even taking a series there to a rubber match, the only one in 11 years. Still, they had an India problem.

The problem only looked to be intensifying when India put them in in the World Test Championship final and had them at 76 for 3. In walked Head, a batter India had effectively pushed out of the Australian side on their last two visits there, a batter who lost his place on the India tour earlier in the year under a horses-for-courses policy.

In a way, India forced Head to reinvent himself. In his latest avatar, Head is a batter with no regrets. The fifth ball he faced was neither too short nor too wide but he crashed it away square for four. Through his stay at the wicket, Head attacked without taking a backward step. The idea was to get on top of the two bowlers behind Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj: Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur were not nearly as menacing or accurate, and Head took full toll.

It was a typical counterattacking innings, with its moments of luck, but the strokeplay was so breathtaking that it consigned Steven Smith's 31st Test century to a footnote. Head scored 163 of the 285 runs that came while he was at the wicket, 94 of those square of cover on the off side. Head and Australia had finally managed to put one past India. They would go on to do so in another final later in the year. The coronation of this Australia among the great Australias would be complete.

Key moment

Start as you mean to go on. Head came out swinging, which not many expected at 76 for 3 on an overcast first morning of a WTC final. He hit six fours in his first 16 balls, which took him to 27. And he didn't only attack the off side. When India packed off, he was just as happy to whip them square on the leg side.

69 Head's control percentage during his century against India, according to ESPNcricinfo, while Smith's was 89.5%. Head's control percentage is the lowest for a Test century since 2014, according to ESPNcricinfo's ball-by-ball logs. The previous lowest was 69.6% for Brendon McCullum during his 79-ball 145 against Australia in 2016.

1 The number of batters in the 2021-23 WTC cycle with 1000 or more runs at an average of 50 or more and strike rate of 70 or more: Head.

"It has been my approach for the two years. I said […] that if balls were presented for me to score off, I wanted to be proactive and score off them, and when they bowled in nice areas to be good enough to stay out there for long periods of time."
- Travis Head

"Travis has been brilliant throughout this whole campaign. He is always putting pressure back on the bowlers."
- Pat Cummins, Australia captain

Dean Elgar
185 vs India, first Test, Centurion
In his final Test series, and as de facto captain with Temba Bavuma injured, Elgar presented a workshop on how to bat in seaming conditions. Almost everybody thought India had scored too many when KL Rahul's century took them from 107 for 5 to 245. However, Elgar had other ideas. As usual, he refused to play at balls outside the line of his head, but in this innings, he cover-drove with aplomb, scoring 185 to give South Africa a match-winning lead and the assurance that they wouldn't lose a home series to India on his watch.