Stats: Travis Head's dream year in T20s
Combining consistency with destructiveness, he wrote a new template for T20 batting
Sampath Bandarupalli16-Sep-2024The England series is likely to be the last T20I assignment for Travis Head in 2024, a year that marked his resurgence in the format. Here’s a look at the numbers that show how he combined consistency with destructiveness.182.07 Head’s strike rate across all T20s in 2024, the second-highest among batters with 1000-plus runs in a calendar year, marginally behind Andre Russell’s 182.12 in 2019.2 Players who scored 1000-plus runs in a calendar year in men’s T20s while averaging 40-plus and striking at 175-plus. Suryakumar Yadav in 2022 is the other one.
2 Head is only the second batter to score 1000-plus runs in the first six overs in a calendar year in men’s T20s (where data is available). Head has scored 1058 runs in the first six overs this year, at an average of 58.77 and a strike rate of 193.06. Alex Hales scored 1223 in 2022. Head’s strike rate in the first six overs is also the highest for any batter in a calendar year (minimum 250 balls faced).3.18 Balls per boundary for Head in 2024, the second-best for any batter in a calendar year (minimum 500 runs). Hales hit a boundary every 2.85 balls in 2017.
7 Head’s fifties – out of 14 50-plus scores this year – that came in 20 or fewer balls. These are the most fifties in 20 or fewer balls by a batter in a calendar year. The previous highest was four by Luke Ronchi in 2017, out of the eight he scored that year.
14 50-plus scores for Head across 39 T20s in 2024. He had only 11 fifty-plus scores in 103 innings in the format till 2023. Head scored 554 runs in 22 innings in T20Is for Australia till 2023 with only one 50-plus score. This year, he had 539 runs and four 50-plus scores in 15 innings.
6 Number of T20 series, or tournaments, played by Head in 2024. He ended up with an average of 30-plus and a strike rate of 150-plus in all six.
1162 Runs scored by Head in boundaries in 2024, the fourth most for a batter in a calendar year in T20s. Only Nicholas Pooran (1354 in 2024), Hales (1352 in 2022) and Chris Gayle (1302 in 2015) have scored more. Head’s boundary runs accounted for 80.58% of his total runs in 2024, the sixth-highest for a batter in a calendar year (minimum 500 runs).1442 Total runs scored by Head in T20s in 2024, the second-most for an Australian in a calendar year, behind Tim David’s 1461 in 2022.
7 Instances of Head completing his fifty inside the powerplay in T20s this year, the most for any batter in a calendar year (where data is available), bettering Jason Roy’s four in 2014. Head scored four of those fifties in the 2024 IPL, the joint-most by a batter in a single tournament, alongside Roy in the 2014 T20 Blast and Finn Allen in the 2020-21 Super Smash.