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The Ashes 2024-25 became all the more memorable for Australia’s Travis Head as he hit his third century of the ongoing series on Tuesday, which happened to be the third day of the fifth and final Test against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Before the start of play on Day 3, Head was unbeaten on 91, and it only took him 18 deliveries after the resumption of the Test to get to his 12th hundred in Tests for Australia. He got to the milestone by scoring a boundary off the bowling of Josh Tongue.
Once the century was completed, the pink-clad Sydney crowd erupted. Head then once again did his trademark celebration by placing his helmet on top of his bat handle and hoisting it into the air. The 32-year-old has now hit tons at seven different Australian venues.
Head has had a memorable Ashes 2025-26 campaign, scoring 600 runs in nine innings at an average of 66.66 and a strike rate of 87.59. His three centuries have come in Perth, Adelaide and Sydney. He started the series off with a second innings ton at the Perth Stadium, helping Australia gain a 1-0 lead.
He then scored his second century of the series in the second innings of the Adelaide Test, and this also resulted in the hosts winning the game comfortably. In Sydney, the batter was eventually dismissed for 163 off 166 balls by Jacob Bethell. His innings was studded with 24 fours and 1 six.
Head also registered the fifth-fastest 150 in the history of the Ashes after reaching the landmark of just 152 balls.
Opening batter joins Vaughan and Cook in elite list
Owing to the three-figure mark at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Head joined the likes of Matthew Hayden, Sir Alastair Cook, Michael Vaughan, Michael Slater, and Bill Lawry in an elite Ashes Test.
All the above-mentioned opening batters have three centuries to their name in a single Ashes series. Only Head, Vaughan, Cook and Hayden have managed to score three centuries in a single Ashes series in this century.
Head’s series tally of 600 runs is currently 206 ahead of the next best, England’s Joe Root (394).
“The way that he can score off the top of the stumps (and) both sides of the wicket, makes your margins very small,” Root had said about Head after stumps on Day 2.
“He’s got such incredible hand-eye coordination. He’s very good at putting bowlers under pressure at the right time and making it very difficult to build a sustained period of pressure over the partnership. He’s always looking to throw punches back in his own way. And he’s got a very clear method of how he wants to do it and trusts it. He’s had a brilliant series to date,” he added.
