Australian opener Travis Head is delighted to contribute in the ongoing Ashes against England. Head scored a magnum opus knock of 163 runs off just 166 balls in the first innings of the fifth Test at Sydney and once again took the English attack to the cleaners. The pugnacious southpaw smashed 24 fours and one six in his blistering knock. 

Head has scored 600 runs in the ongoing Ashes at a stunning average of 66.67. The left-hander has scored his runs at a strike rate of 87.59. The next highest run-getter for Australia this series is Alex Carey, who has almost half of Head’s run tally, 307.

The southpaw was asked to open the innings for Australia after Usman Khawaja picked up a back injury early in the Ashes.

“I’ve enjoyed it, it’s been good and very pleased to be able to contribute the way I have here,” Head said after hitting his 12th Test century. “Something like 600 runs now (in the series). I’m not normally the one that’s doing the heavy lifting as such. The likes of Marnus (Labuschagne) and Smudge (Steve Smith) over the last period of time have been the heavy-lifters and the guys that have really, really driven games, and Davey (Warner). I’ve been very lucky to bat around those guys. So nice to pull my finger out and help them out on the other side,” he said in the presser.

Head said he is likely to continue as an opener after Khawaja announced that the Sydney Test will be his swansong in the red-ball version.

“Probably likely. But again, this rolling order and where we think guys are going to match up and where we’re going to fit guys in is still where my head’s at. And I think the leadership of the group, the selectors, we’ve been pretty open about that — how we match up and how we want to best suit this team,” he said.

At stumps on Day three, Australia were 518-7, leading England by 134 runs with Steve Smith remaining unbeaten on 129.