Accidents do not come much happier. Usman Khawaja’s mid-game back problem was annoying for the player and potentially damaging for his team, until it wasn’t. Clearing out the regular dry-powder opener created space in the final stanza of the Perth Test, allowing Travis Head to finish off England with the gory certainty and splatter count of a Mortal Kombat fatality move. 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 did not just win the match, but has sent the opposition into a demoralising tailspin. So the fortuitous success creates a quandary about what to do next.
Khawaja may not be passed fit for the second Test, but if he is should that be enough to reassure selectors his injury will not recur? And even if they believe he is ready should that be enough reason to retain him?
During two years of uncertainty about Australia’s permanent opener, Head has been a regular suggestion from some quarters. It made some sense: there is the absence of a highly qualified candidate at domestic level, his history of thriving in seaming conditions and that he already does that job in both white-ball teams. His Perth performance has turned that rumble to a roar.
Before proclaiming the case self-evident, it may be worth an appraisal of just how impressive his performance was in a historical contest. Despite the relatively low target, there have been only eight bigger Ashes scores made in a successful fourth innings: the paired efforts of Don Bradman and Arthur Morris pursuing what was the world record of 404; hundreds on separate tours from the great opening pair Herbert Sutcliffe and Jack Hobbs; the Ben Stokes 2019 miracle at Headingley; Mark Butcher’s more subdued version at the same ground 18 years earlier; and innings from Australia’s Joe Darling and England’s Jack Brown.
All of these are also dwarfed by Head’s strike rate of 148 – even the lightning final stages of the Stokes innings lifted his overall rate to only 62. Nine Ashes tons have been faster than a run a ball and the one faster than Head’s was Adam Gilchrist’s Waca declaration smash. In all Test cricket, five centuries have been faster and you can be assured that none of those were made in the fourth innings of a match. In terms of context, there is no equal.
Accordingly, probability says you can not pick this player expecting a similar innings to happen again. We have already seen the one that would define most careers. If Head tries to repeat the magic, it risks distracting his focus and making him attack too hard at the wrong time. Especially in a pink-ball Test, teeing off in the first innings in Brisbane would probably be far riskier than in the fourth innings in Perth. Khawaja has shown there are different ways to counter this threat, like his long, patient 145 against South Africa with a pink ball at Adelaide in 2016, batting more than seven hours to set up a win.
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Equally, there is a strong argument that opening is a position of specialised risk and that Head has already won plenty of important matches for Australia from No 5. Putting him lower in the order leaves his gifts less subject to the peril of the moving ball at the top. With Jake Weatherald the new occupant of one opening spot, you can argue Australia do not need two punchy left-handers taking on the bowling from ball one.
However sensible your stance, it may now be washed away by pure momentum. Anyone who saw that innings in Perth will want to know what happens if Head mashes another set of buttons. If this innings would define careers for most players, for Head it might make the top five. Maybe there is scope from here to expand that to a top 10?
It is reasonable sometimes to be greedy. As Australia weigh up their options, the sensible approach says no. The impulsive one says: that was fun, let’s do it again.
