Travis Head Is The World's Best All-Format Batter, And It's Not Close

Travis Head has enjoyed perhaps the best run in his international career of late. Without question, he is currently the world's best all-format batter.

On September 19, 2024, Travis Head was in action for Australia against England, in the first of five ODIs between the sides. He opened the innings in their chase of 316, and off the final ball of the fourth over was nearly dismissed.

He sliced Matthew Potts out towards the point boundary, where Brydon Carse, 20 yards in off the rope, went at a difficult catch one-handed and only just lost hold of it. Slow-motion replays on the broadcast showed Head's eyes widen as the ball went in the air, and he looked shocked, as if it was inconceivable that he could be dismissed.

The way he has been batting over the last 18 months or so, Head could be forgiven for being aghast at the thought.

He went on to slam an unbeaten 154, off just 129 balls, and help his side over the line with a mammoth six overs to spare. For any other batter, this would have been celebrated as one of the crowning moments of their career. But the response to this was different. It was, well, Travis Head doing what Travis Head does.

Travis Head: T20 cricket's No.1 batter?

Since the start of 2023, Head has been among the best in the business in every format of international cricket. As a dasher in Australia's red-ball middle order and a devastating opener in the limited-overs formats, he has switched between roles with consummate ease.

Head's most natural format is T20 cricket. As a batter with see-and-hit technique, it is the one where the chinks in his armour are least likely to be exposed, and the one where he can maximise his strengths, to their fullest potential.

Since the start of 2023, Head's record in T20 internationals speaks for itself. His tally of 748 runs is bettered only by five opening batters, all of whom have played at least five matches more than him and none of whom belong to Test-playing nations. His batting average of 37.4 in this time is second only to UAE's Muhammad Waseem (39.8) among these five.

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But as always in T20 cricket, the rate of scoring is a vital component of any batter's game. Head is a massive outlier in this regard as well. At a stunning 177.25 runs per 100 balls, no opener with a significant run tally comes close. Oman's Naseem Khushi and Scotland's Ollie Hairs strike at 178 and 175 respectively, but only have close to half the number of runs that Head does.

Even comparing Head to batters in other positions, there are 18 who have scored more runs than him. Some of these players have higher averages, but the closest strike rate to his is Muhammad Waseem's 162, fifteen points lower.

To sum it up, since the start of last year, no batter in T20I cricket has scored more runs at a better average and a better strike rate than Head. Extending this to all T20 cricket, the club of players to score 1500 runs at an average above 35 and strike rate above 175 has exactly one member – Travis Head.

There is more than a solid case to made that Travis Head is the best T20 batter in the world. Phil Salt and Suryakumar Yadav are probably in the ballpark, but are still little more than challengers to the throne.

What of Head's record in ODIs?

Head turns ODIs into extended T20s

Well, consider this. When he suffered a hand injury in South Africa just ahead of the 2023 World Cup, Australia opted not to name a replacement at all, despite him missing the first five of their nine group stage matches.

Head repaid the team management's faith in spectacular fashion. His first match of the tournament came against New Zealand, in which he belted a whirlwind 109 off just 67 balls in Dharamsala to help his side post 388. His next three matches were disappointing, but in the semi-final he scored a run-a-ball 62, before scoring 137 in the summit clash against hosts and title favourites India, to steal the trophy away.

His runs tally since last year is fairly low, given that Head has played just 15 ODIs in this time frame. But what he has done is essentially turn his ODI knocks into extensions of the T20 ones. No other opener with over 500 runs (Head has 728) averages over 60, and his strike rate of 129 is most closely matched by Rohit Sharma's 120. All of Head's fifty-plus scores (three half-centuries, three centuries) in ODI cricket in this time period have come at at least a run a ball.

Indeed, only Heinrich Klaasen (927) and Glenn Maxwell (413), seen as finishers in limited-overs cricket, have scored a significant number of runs at comparable paces. Klaasen, apart from Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli could compete with Head for the title of best ODI batter at present but their cases would be built on the quantity of runs (a result of playing more matches, at present).

Is Travis Head as good at red-ball cricket?

Finally, to Test cricket. This is perhaps Head's worst format, but that is not to say he does not excel at it. His most notable knock in the format came in June last year – in a final, against India. Australia were in trouble at 76-3, until Head walked in to put on 285 for the fourth wicket with Steve Smith, bludgeoning 163 in brutal fashion on his way to helping Australia win the title.

Knocks like these do not come around every day, but Head has carved out a place for himself in Australia's Test setup as their attacker in the middle order. His record since 2023 profiles not dissimilarly to England opening pair Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, poster boys for the 'Bazball' style of attacking batting – an average of 37.2 and strike rate of 75.2.

It's not a remarkable record by any means, but Head is still an outlier for how quickly he gets his runs. Interestingly though, his batting average is not shabby either. Compared to batters in the top seven in matches he has played, Head averages about three-and-a-half points higher. Combined with his ability to score quickly, that is a very handy player for Australia indeed.

There are undoubtedly players with more consistency and larger averages who could be considered superior Test batters to Head. Joe Root, Harry Brook, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Kane Williamson probably form the cream of the crop, with Head in the next tier alongside Rohit Sharma, Marnus Labuschagne, Virat Kohli and the like.

Essentially, with Head, what we have is a batter who is currently a top-three T20I player (at worst), a top-five or six ODI batter, and a tier two Test batter. What makes him the best all-format batter in the world, and what makes it not even close, is not that he is the best in each of the three formats.

Rather, it is because no other batter can claim as high a status in each format as Head does. Rohit may have come close, but aside from the T20 World Cup barely played international cricket in the format. In addition, he is retired from that format now. Mohammad Rizwan and Daryl Mitchell have been solid in the Test and ODI formats, but are nowhere close to Head in T20 cricket.

Root and Williamson cannot touch Head in the white-ball formats, even if they may be superior in Test cricket. Harry Brook and Yashasvi Jaiswal could challenge him, but Brook has yet to really crack ODIs while Jaiswal has not played the format at all. Shubman Gill may also have been up there, but his poor form of late in Test cricket coupled with questions over his approach in T20s mean even he is quite a way off.

Head's record is more than enough to call him the best all-format batter in the world. But even beyond that, what adds to his stature in the modern game is the sheer terror he brings with him. Possibility is a frightening thing already, and even if you are on Head's side, you shudder to think what he is capable of next.

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