Travis Head Surpasses Virat Kohli, Viv Richards And Equals Rahul Dravid, Imran Khan For Major Feat With Ashes Show

Travis Head shone with the bat as Australia defeated England in the fifth and final Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Opting to bat first, the Three Lions posted 384, but Head's terrific knock put the hosts right in control. The southpaw smashed 163 off just 166 balls, with the help of 24 fours and one six. Steve Smith also contributed with a well-crafted century (138) as Australia posted 567, taking a first-innings lead of 183 runs.

So crucial was Australia's first-innings lead that they won the game by five wickets, despite England fighting back through Jacob Bethell's 154-run knock.

Head scored 29 in the second innings, finishing the match with 192 runs to his name. He was handed the Player of the Match award for his brilliant batting.

This turned out to be the 11th Player of the Match award for Head in Test cricket. With it, he surpassed Virat Kohli in the list of players with the most Player of the Match awards in the format.

Notably, Kohli called time on his Test career last year. He remains active as an international player only in ODI cricket.

Malcolm Marshall, Matthew Hayden, Kevin Pietersen, R Ashwin, Younis Khan, Viv Richards, Anil Kumble, and Stuart Broad also clinched 10 Player of the Match awards in Test cricket.

Head has equalled the feat of Imran Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Aravinda de Silva, Rangana Herath, Shaun Pollock, Kane Williamson, Glenn McGrath, Daniel Vettori, Glenn McGrath, Allan Border, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and Rahul Dravid.

South Africa's legendary all-rounder Jacques Kallis tops the list with a tally of 23.

Coming back to Travis Head, this was his first Test century at the SCG. "It's special. There's a couple of good names up there. I have always found it tough to bat here, so it was nice to be up the order, nice to face the hard new ball and nice to contribute again. Every hundred you get is going to be well cherished, but I'll probably hold the couple at the start of the series when everything was on the line and we had an opportunity to win the Ashes series, that was the pleasing part. Then, I guess from a personal perspective, it's nice to finish a series well in the fifth Test with runs again and make sure we don't take the foot off," he said.

Australia won the Ashes 2025-26 series 4-1.

Topics mentioned in this article

Cricket England Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team India Cricket Team Virat Kohli Travis Head Australia vs England, Ashes 2025-26