Australia opener Travis Head is having a dream year in his cricketing career. The left-hander was the Man of the Match in the World Test Championship Final earlier this year against India at The Oval.
He was set to feature in the World Cup 2023 but a hand fracture forced him to miss the first couple of weeks of the tournament. Despite an injury, the Australian selectors and management backed him.
He was sensational on his return. In his first game in the World Cup, Travis Head smashed a match-winning 109 against New Zealand. After three low scores then, the left-hander came clutch in a low-scoring semi-final in Kolkata against South Africa, picking up two wickets and whacking 62 runs on a tough pitch.
In the final, against the toughest bowling attack of the tournament, Head, after surviving the initial burst from Bumrah and Shami, took on the Indian bowlers to plunder 137 runs and seal Australia’s 6th World Cup trophy. Travis Head also was responsible for turning India’s momentum by taking a sensational diving catch of Rohit Sharma.
Travis Head will be a future star: Shane Warne
While Indians may have noticed his exploits this year, there was one man who had predicted Head for a bright future across formats back in 2016, having seen him in domestic and BBL games: Shane Warne.
After Travis Head’s final-winning hundred, a tweet from the late Shane Warne from 2016 went viral in which the great spinner said he is a “big fan” of Head, and said he is confident that the left-hander will become a superstar going forward.
Back in 2016, Shane Warne tweeted: “I’m a big fan of Travis Head as a cricketer, I believe he will be a future star for Australia in all forms of the game!!”
Head joined an elite list alongside Shane Warner of only 4 people with Man of the Match awards in World Cup knockouts – Mohinder Amarnath in 1983, Aravinda de Silva in 1996, Shane Warne in 1999.
He said: “Never expected this, not in a million years, truly an exceptional day. Lot better than sitting on the couch at home. Really glad to contribute, the first twenty balls I played gave me a lot of confidence and yea I was able to carry through.”
