What Travis Head's own scores say about Australia's partnership problem

Travis Head wants a day when more than one Australian batter cashes in, and St George's Park showed why he is asking. South Africa made 425 for 9, Australia were bowled out for 99 in 42.3 overs, and in the second innings Head made 121 of a total of 295. One man standing tall is the pattern he is complaining about, and in that Test the man was Head himself.

Head's scorecard tells the story

In men's Tests since October 2024 Head averages 45.42, against 33.16 for top-seven batters, so his output is plainly not where the trouble lies. The shape of those runs is the salient part. In 37 innings he has six hundreds and only four fifties, which means that when he gets in he goes very big, and when he does not he is usually gone early, as his three other innings against South Africa this month showed.

A side whose best batter scores in that pattern looks brittle the moment he fails, and even his hundreds leave a thin total when the runs around him are few, as the 295 at St George's Park showed. The corollary is that the partnership problem has less to do with Head than with who is still at the crease when his big innings arrives.

Still the side to beat at Newlands?

Any alarm needs tempering. Our ratings put Australia first of the ten Test sides, with a 76% chance of beating an average side, and the two defeats sit inside a run of heavy wins. The loss to Bangladesh in August and the one at St George's Park each came within a match of a thumping victory, the latest by 214 runs at Kingsmead. Their good days are still very good; the trouble is how quickly the bad ones arrive, and how completely the batting folds when they do.

Our call for the third Test at Newlands gives Australia a 44% chance against 38% for South Africa, a small lean towards the side that has just been beaten. The collective day Head wants requires a second big score in the same innings as his, and Newlands will show whether Australia can finally put one alongside it.