Travis Head picked up his 11th Player of the Match award in the fifth Ashes Test, making him the player with the best POTM rate in Test history.
Travis Head wins 11th Player of the Match award in 65th Test
Head was the star of the show after being promoted to open the batting in Usman Khawaja’s absence in the second innings of the first Ashes Test in Perth. He slammed an 83-ball 123 to begin with.
He added another hundred to his tally in the third Test in Adelaide as the hosts sealed the series with two games remaining. Head finished things off with 163 in fine batting conditions in Sydney, helping Australia win the Test and seal the series 4-1 while winning his 11th POTM award in 65 Tests.
5th Test, Australia vs England
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- Ball by ball Over
Riding on his three centuries, Head finished at the top of the series run-scoring charts with 629 runs, over 200 more than second-placed Joe Root. Alex Carey, second on the list among Australians, scored 323, a massive 303 runs fewer than Head’s tally.
The southpaw’s overall Test tally now stands at 4592 runs in 65 matches at 43.73, with 12 hundreds and 20 fifties. None of his 12 Test hundreds have come in a defeat, marking him as among the greatest match-winners in the format. Notably, all seven of his ODI tons have come in wins as well.
Head has now been named Player of the Match in 16.92 per cent of his games in Test cricket, the most for anyone with at least 25 Test caps. He overtook the legendary Wasim Akram, who won the award 17 times in 104 Tests, a rate of 16.35 per cent, with former New Zealand bowler Daryl Tuffey the only other player with POTM awards won in more than 15 per cent of his Tests.
Players with the best POTM rates in Tests: Full list (min. 25 Tests)
Player | Team | Tests | POTM awards | % of Tests in which they were POTM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travis Head | Australia | 65 | 11 | 16.92 |
| Wasim Akram | Pakistan | 104 | 17 | 16.35 |
| Daryl Tuffey | New Zealand | 26 | 4 | 15.38 |
| Muthiah Muralidaran | Sri Lanka | 133 | 19 | 14.29 |
| Curtly Ambrose | West Indies | 98 | 14 | 14.29 |
| Harry Brook | England | 35 | 5 | 14.29 |
| Jacques Kallis | South Africa | 166 | 23 | 13.86 |
| Irfan Pathan | India | 29 | 4 | 13.79 |
| Imran Khan | Pakistan | 88 | 11 | 12.50 |
| Vernon Philander | South Africa | 64 | 8 | 12.50 |
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