The Ashes: Australia opener Travis Head’s calculated aggression beats England at their own game in first test

Sunday, 23 November 2025

At Optus Stadium, Perth (first test): England 172 and 164 (Gus Atkinson 37, Ollie Pope 33; Scott Boland 4-33, Brendan Doggett 3-51, Mitchell Starc 3-55) lost to Australia 132 and 205-2 (Travis Head 123, Marnus Labuschagne 51no) by 8 wickets.

Almost to a man, England's players ran towards Travis Head to congratulate him. First came the wicketkeeper, Jamie Smith, one of the few left within earshot of the opener given the spread field. Ben Stokes ran from long-off to shake hands, and Ben Duckett, walking in from third man, offered a fist bump. They knew, as did the sell-out crowd, that they had seen something special. Immediately after the game, Stokes described himself and his team as 'shell-shocked'.

Pushed up to open in place of the injured Usman Khawaja - and what a masterstroke that proved to be - Head played one of the great Ashes innings. He made the second-fastest hundred in Ashes history and the joint-fastest hundred by a Test opener, to hurry England to a devastating defeat.

Almost 20 years ago, just across the river, Adam Gilchrist made the fastest hundred in Ashes cricket, but the impact of this one is greater, coming as it did in the opening Test of the series when everything was on the line.

In the blink of an eye, England went from winning the game to losing it. Head's hundred came in 69 balls and no bowler escaped punishment. Brydon Carse? A flayed six over third man. Mark Wood? A scoop for six over fine leg. Jofra Archer? A withering flat-batted six back over the bowler's head. And when Stokes finally brought himself on, Head took him for four fours, and 17 in the over, which summed up the dramatic shift in the balance of power, after Stokes had run through Australia's middle order the day before. Shell-shocked, indeed.

The seeds of England's defeat were sown elsewhere, of course, in two horrible batting collapses and in the magnificent left-arm bowling of Mitchell Starc, who led the attack superbly in taking ten wickets in the match. From a position at lunch where they should have been able to close out the game, England lost nine wickets in a session to some poorly executed shots. It showed their propensity, once again, for leaving the door ajar instead of slamming it shut in the opposition's face.

Nevertheless, when Khawaja took his leave from the field towards the end of England's second innings with another back spasm, it felt like the game was still in the balance. Atkinson and Carse had shared a partnership of 50 for the eighth wicket and Australia, after all, had to make the highest score in the match to win. In the first innings Khawaja's absence had played to England's advantage, causing dislocation to the batting order. England's bowlers had rattled the top order. Could they do it again?

Who, we wondered, would open this time? Would it be Marnus Labuschagne, as in the first innings, alongside the debutant Jake Weatherald, who was sitting on a pair? England's bowlers enjoyed getting at Labuschagne and Steve Smith early on when the ball was new. When Atkinson became the last wicket to fall in the match-losing middle session, it was Head who sprinted from the field. Inwardly, Stokes might have winced.

It is rare for Stokes to pick out opposition players for special praise, but he did just that with Head before the previous Ashes series in England. Stokes was so impressed by his batting in Australia four years ago, when the left-hander scored more runs than anyone else, that he mentioned the difficulties of bowling and setting fields to him, because of the pace at which he scores and the unorthodox way he plays.

Head was man of the series in that 2021-22 Ashes and showed his appetite for the big occasions again when he was man of the match in the World Test Championship final of 2023 at the Oval, and again in the 50-over World Cup final in India that year. He is so dangerous: England bowled well at him in the first innings by tucking him up and aiming into the ribcage, but they were unable to tie him down again, as he moved intelligently around the crease.

Head said the decision to open belonged to the captain and coach but that he was eager to have a go too. He is no stranger to the position, of course, having done it frequently in white-ball cricket and twice, more recently, in Tests. In a low-scoring and fast-moving game, it was always likely that one batsman would be able to shift the dial significantly. He had been on a run of low scores in domestic cricket, but this situation was perfect: a lowish total to chase and a licence to attack.

He played as England wish to play, but simply did it better. England will be criticised, as well they should, for their collapse after lunch as, in turn, Ollie Pope, Harry Brook and Joe Root all got out playing loosely outside the off stump. But Head showed that calculated aggression was the way to go on this surface and he was far more effective than others had been in the first innings when they tried to grind their way out of trouble. Head showed that it could be done.

Of all the defeats of the Bazball era, this was the most discouraging. In the opening Test of the 2023 Ashes, England enjoyed long periods of dominance before losing a tight game at Edgbaston. At the Oval three months ago, they gifted a Test match to India, having all but won it. But this felt worse.

There had been signs as Duckett and Pope began to stretch England's lead before lunch that Australia were feeling the pinch: the fielding was ragged, Nathan Lyon was limping, having taken a blow from Wood to the hip, and only Starc threatened. The game was there for the taking; a glorious opportunity gone begging.

– The Times, London