The Ashes: Head rules in Hobart to frustrate England

The Australian played nine games for the club in 2016 as a replacement overseas player for the New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson.

Head had a pretty successful time of it at Headingley, scoring 446 runs at an average of 44.6 across four T20, four List A and one County Championship match combined.

The highlight was a remarkable innings of 175 against Leicestershire at Grace Road in the 50-over Cup, Head falling just short of fellow countryman Darren Lehmann’s record one-day innings for the club of 191 against Nottinghamshire at Scarborough in 2001.

There were echoes of that display in Hobart yesterday, where Head thrashed a 112-ball century to put Australia on top in the fifth Ashes Test.

Coming in at 12-3, after two wickets for the returning Ollie Robinson and one for Stuart Broad had apparently justified England’s decision to bowl first in the pink-ball game, Head counter-attacked as he did on that memorable Sunday at the Fisher County Ground, sharing 121 for the fourth-wicket with Cameron Green, who struck 74, before Australia closed a rain-affected first day on 241-6 from 59.3 overs, a pretty useful effort in challenging conditions.

The swashbuckling left-hander, who turned 28 last month, had started this Ashes series with an innings of 152 in the first Test in Brisbane, following up with scores of 18 and 51 in the Adelaide Test and 27 in his solitary innings in 
the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.

Head missed the fourth Test in Sydney with Covid-19 and, after Usman Khawaja, his replacement, took advantage by scoring twin hundreds, might have feared for his place as Australia looked to complete a 4-0 triumph at the Blundstone Arena.

But after Australia instead dropped Marcus Harris, the opening batsman, and promoted Khawaja up the order to partner David Warner, Head batted as if he had never been away, his innings of 101 justifying the selectors’ faith and undoing much of England’s earlier good work.

That good work – as they sought to build on a hard-fought draw in Sydney with nine wickets down – saw Warner fall for a 22-ball duck when he edged Robinson to Zak Crawley at second slip.

Crawley should have had another catch there off the same bowler almost immediately only to spill Marnus Labuschagne on nought, the mistake proving costly as Labuschagne combined with Head in a fourth-wicket stand of 71.

Khawaja was second out when he edged Stuart Broad to Root at first, and when Steve Smith fell for a second-ball duck, this time safely pocketed by Crawley at second off Robinson, England’s bowlers were well on top.

That said, there was a wholly unnecessary send-off from Robinson when he celebrated in Smith’s face as he left the crease, Robinson’s fitness and general attitude once more called into question on a day when he managed just eight overs due to a back spasm.

Labuschagne went on to 44 before losing his wicket in a fashion that fair beggered belief. Stepping far over to the offside, he was bowled middle stump by Broad and, if that was not bad enough, fell on all fours for good measure.

If you had seen it happen on the village green you would not have believed it.

Head played some fine and fluent shots through the offside in particular on a day when Mark Wood and Chris Woakes were expensive. He fell one ball after reaching his century, tamely chipping Woakes to Robinson at mid-on, while Green also rather gave it away in the end when he pulled Wood down Crawley’s throat at deep square-leg before the rain arrived.