Head's standout case to take out maiden AB Medal

Travis Head's extraordinary ascension as Australia's leading all-format batter has the dynamo left-hander in pole position to earn his maiden Allan Border Medal next week.

Following Mitch Marsh's heartfelt acceptance of the biggest male prize in Australian cricket 12 months ago, Head shapes as an equally popular potential winner of this year's award at a ceremony held in Melbourne on Monday.

During the voting period that begun with Australia's home 2023-24 Test series against West Indies and ran through to the end of the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign, the 31-year-old amassed 1,427 runs across all formats.

It is 621 runs more than the next highest run-getter, Steve Smith with 806.

Head averaged 42.24 during the eligibility period – no mean feat given more than half of his 29 matches were T20Is – and scored four centuries; the 119 against West Indies in the 2023-24 Adelaide Test against the Windies, the 154no in an ODI against England at Trent Bridge, and his back-to-back hundreds against India in the BGT series.

Across all three formats during the same span, the rest of Australia's batters managed a combined five tons.

Head's overall games tally of 29 is also significantly higher than other multi-format players; Josh Hazlewood (23 games across all three formats), Mitchell Starc (22), Steve Smith (21) and Pat Cummins (18).

Only Adam Zampa (31 matches) played more games for Australia during the voting period.

Head's nine wickets at 16 only add to a remarkable campaign in which he is a strong chance to also salute as the Test Player of the Year for a second time and contend strongly for the men’s limited-overs prizes too.

Unless a white-ball specialist pulls off an upset win, the AB Medal winner is likely to accept their award in absentia given the formalities are being held in Melbourne a day after the scheduled conclusion to Australia's first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle.

The prospect of Zampa or Marcus Stoinis taking out the major prize is not completely far-fetched given Australia’s white-ball heavy 12 months. In the voting period, the Aussie men played 32 limited-overs games (11 ODIs, 21 T20Is), more than triple the number of Tests (nine).

But that imbalance is offset by the AB Medal's weighted scoring system that sees votes (cast by players, umpires and media) in Test matches worth double those earned in ODIs and triple those from T20Is.

No player has ever won the AB Medal playing white-ball matches only.

Recent Allan Border Medal winners

2024: Mitch Marsh

 

2023: Steve Smith

 

2022: Mitch Starc

 

2021: Steve Smith

 

2020: David Warner

A win for Smith (the only other batter to score multiple Test tons during the voting period) would see him become the first man to take the award home five times.

Cummins could pocket the medal for a second time having book-ended a solid T20 World Cup run (snaring back-to-back hat-tricks against Bangladesh and Afghanistan) with typically impressive Test returns (36 wickets at 24.58).

But both Smith and Cummins are likely to have votes pinched off them from solid campaigners like Hazlewood (whose 30 Test wickets came at just 13.16) and Starc (31 Test wickets at 30.38), both of whom also enjoyed a solid World Cup.

Those players, along with Alex Carey and Nathan Lyon, are the main contenders for the Test Player of the Year gong, though Head's team-leading 636 runs in that format from 16 innings will make him hard to top.

Returning a T20I strike-rate of 178.47 and posting Australia's only ODI ton for the voting period will also have him in the mix to also be crowned as the T20I and ODI Player of the Year.

Zampa will be among his main competition for both prizes, taking 35 wickets at 17.20 in T20Is and 15 at 30 in ODIs (no other bowler took more than eight wickets in that format), with the leg-spinner having surprisingly never won a limited-overs award.

Smith could snare a third ODI Player of the Year prize (joining David Warner and Shane Watson as triple-winners) after performing solidly (306 runs at 43.71) in a quiet year for 50-over cricket.

Stoinis and Tim David should receive plenty of votes in the T20I section, with David and Zampa the only men to have played all 21 of Australia's eligible matches.

After their star turns on debut during the back-end of the BGT series, Beau Webster and Sam Konstas shape as the favourites to earn the Domestic Player of the Year and the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year awards respectively.

Tanveer Sangha, Jake Fraser-McGurk and Cooper Connolly are all in the mix for the latter award that is limited to those who had played fewer than 10 first-class matches, 25 or fewer combined List A and BBL matches, and were under the age of 24 at the beginning of the voting period for this award (December 5 2023).