Travis Head On India's Golden Era: 'They’ll Keep Being The Best Team - That’s Not Changing' - News18

EXCLUSIVE | Travis Head On India's Golden Era: 'They’ll Keep Being The Best Team - That’s Not Changing'

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News18.com

Last Updated: April 07, 2025, 12:56 IST

In an exclusive conversation with News18 CricketNext, Travis Head opens up about facing the mighty Indian side, the pressures of ICC tournaments, what makes BGT as intense as the Ashes and more.

Travis Head has been India's tormentor in global tournaments and elsewhere. (AFP Photo)

In an era of fast-paced cricket and fleeting careers, Travis Head has carved a niche for himself as one of Australia’s most reliable match-winners in recent years —often thriving when the stakes are highest. From conquering India in the World Cup final with a broken finger to battling the emotional toll of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Head has managed to perform when it matters the most.

In this exclusive conversation with News18 CricketNext, the charismatic left-hander opens up about facing the mighty Indian side, the pressures of ICC tournaments, what makes BGT as intense as the Ashes, and how legends like Virat Kohli and Steve Smith have helped shape his approach to the game. Candid, thoughtful, and refreshingly grounded.

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Excerpts

India has had dominating wins in the last two ICC white-ball tournaments. As someone who plays regularly against them, how do you assess this Indian team currently and going forward?

They’ve always been the strongest team. I feel like that’s the games that you want to play well in. You want to play well against the best team. They’re going to consistently be the best team. It won’t stop. They’ll probably continually be playing in the finals of ICC events. I guess when you get to that stage in an event—if you look past the last four—we’ve played them in two of those finals, and then they’ve played in the last two and won. And we’ve been fortunate enough to play well in a couple of those finals.

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But you look at those two, the Test Championship was probably a little bit different. I felt like we had a really good sound team and felt really confident. Then you go to the Indian World Cup and—not in a million years—I thought that we were going to aspire ourselves a chance to be there at that stage. And I guess everything that you go to and look up and their record at that time, they hadn’t lost a game. You go in underdogs, and you go in—which is, I think, a rare thing—but it’s also, what’s the worst that could happen?

They’ve been the best team. I think sometimes you go out there with that naïve attitude that there’s nothing that can go wrong, really. We win and it’s amazing. We lose, and it’s probably expected because of how strong they’ve been. I’ve always gone in those games with no real expectations, no real pressure. It’s just another game of cricket.

Unfortunately for India, good or bad, there’s a lot of pressure. I think as an opposition, you can feed off a little bit, and that brings you motivation, knowing that there is a lot of pressure in that change room to bring home trophies. It’s expected much like Australia. The Champions Trophy was a little bit quieter in Australia in terms of media, but as soon as you lose, it’s bigger. So, win and loss does amazing things. And there’s always a lot of pressure in both change rooms, but it’s how you deal with that and how you move through that. That’s the important part.

A follow-up—do you see shades of what Australia did in the 2000s and 2010s in this Indian team, or is that comparison premature?

Well, they did it. I guess they were able to do it in every format. It’s probably Test—extremely close. It could go either way. We’ve seen how close the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was. I feel like both teams are competing harder for that and where it goes.

But definitely in white-ball cricket, I think you only got to look at probably who’s missing out in that Indian team—would play in a lot of international teams. You go by that, and if that team was to change and have a lot of movement, the guys coming in would get the job done. You look at Abhi’s [Abhishek Sharma] not playing, and Nitish isn’t playing. There’s so many guys that could play in that team… yeah, there’s so many players that could play in that team and do well on both batting and bowling. It’s just strength in your bench.

So, I think they’re going to set themselves up for a long period of time. The World Cup next year—the T20 World Cup—is here in India. So, we’re going to have our work cut out there again because they know the conditions so well and it’s such a strong team. But it’s how you deal with all those pressures and whatnot. And that will be the part for India, I think, is how they can deal with working through those tournaments. If they do, then they’re going to find themselves in a lot of finals—and then exciting for India and challenging for everyone else.

You talked about the intensity of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. What was that experience like for you personally?

Yeah, I was tired by the end of it. It was emotionally draining as much physically. I feel like the media played the biggest role it’s played in the series to date. Everything was a storyline.

You go to Perth, and all of a sudden, we were the worst team ever. We played well in Adelaide and all of a sudden, where does that leave India? Where does that leave all their gun players? Do they need change? They just won a Test, and then we go to Melbourne. Every game had a storyline. It was never just one player, someone played well or this team played well this game and we move on. It was: first Test, Virat’s back and gets a hundred. The next Test, he misses out. It was like, where’s he at? It was just the emotion of it all—for everyone—was hard, bar probably Jasprit, who had the series of his life.

I think everyone had their ups and downs throughout that series on where they were at—physically, mentally, media and whatnot—bar probably one player who excelled through that whole series. But it was probably the toughest series that I played in in terms of just the hype around it and each Test and the flows of it all.

Then, yeah, the importance of it. I think both teams would be expected to win at home. India would be expected to win the Border-Gavaskar in India, and we would expect to win at home. If you can fight as an opposition away team and win a few games and put pressure on the opposition, that’s what you’re looking for and trying to find cracks. So pleasing that we’re able to get the job done. Like you said, it’s been a long time between it [Aus winning BGT]. So, yeah, it was a nice moment, nice achievement in such a big series to play well.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Travis Head (@travishead34)

Comparing BGT and the Ashes—how do the two rivalries measure up for you?

If you look at the two series, the ’19 Ashes in England and the last one, was probably the two biggest series I played in. I still think traditionally the Ashes is going to slightly be bigger. But I think the competition in the Border-Gavaskar is closing in very, very closely. That rivalry has been strong. It’s been strong for a long period of time. It just needs more tradition, more history, and there’s no doubt that there’s no reason why it can’t match that.

I think the intensity is matched. But there’s just a different feel with the Ashes coming, and it’s been spoken about already for 18 months. We’re still a long way away from it. I mean, we’re eight months away from it still. That’s all that mainly England are talking about. But it’s mainly—that’s all its spoken about right now when we play a game in the Champions Trophy: “What does this mean for the Ashes?" It means nothing, because it’s a one-day game. It’s getting compared to a Test match. From my side of things, it means absolutely little. But there’s always that comparison.

There’s not that quite comparison with Australia–India. We haven’t played in India yet. If we just play the series, what does it mean for when we come to India next time? And all those things. A lot of comparisons are drawn in games that we play against England. But yeah, give it time. It’s the same intensity. It’s the same rivalry as such, but just a little bit more tradition with the Ashes.

Reflecting on the ‘Fab 4’—Kohli, Williamson, Root, and Smith—what have you taken from them in your own journey?

Yeah, longevity. And then I think all of them have gone about it in different ways.

I think Virat has changed a lot in his personal life—obviously his fitness and the way he’s gone about things, his intensity, the way he brings—and that’s how he’s got [success]. I guess I share a room with Steven, who is one of the great problem solvers that I’ve ever seen—the way he bats and is able to solve problems and do it on the go—and his work ethic around the way he plays and what he needs. And then the self-confidence in when he finds that, he just knows. And he’s back in that space at the minute, where I feel like he picks a bat up and he can tap it two times, and he’ll tell you you’re getting a Test hundred, and he goes out and does it.

Those are probably the two that I play—one with and one against—the most. It’s just the longevity and what they need. And those two are probably on the different ends of the spectrum in terms of how they go about things and the intensity they bring. But they’ve done it for a very long time. So pressure on the next lot that come through to be able to upskill that. But I don’t think we’ll see four players like that again for a long time.

When your career winds down, how would you like to be remembered—as a player and teammate?

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I’m not driven by stats and whatnot. It’s a stat-driven game, and obviously, I’d love as many hundreds and the highest average I possibly could get. But I’d like to think the impact. I think over the last three years, it’s—what have I brought to the table? I’d like to think that I’ll be impactful in games and big games, and that’s not going to guarantee it in the future. Bring an impact to a team and try and be a bit of a game-changer and try and just play the style that the team needed and required.

So yeah, hopefully look back and—teammates and people that watch the game and dive into the game—hopefully they think, he was a really good team man and someone that was able to go out and try to impact the game and play it in a style which was enjoyable, which is what the team needed and was trying to be able to be as consistent as it possibly could be.

First Published: April 07, 2025, 12:56 IST

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