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Australian batter Travis Head has become the fifth cricketer to win back-to-back Allan Border Medals after edging out wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey in a tightly contested vote.
Meanwhile, Mitchell Starc won the Shane Warne Men's Test Player of the Year award, while Mitchell Marsh and Tim David were named the top ODI and T20I players respectively, according to cricket.com.au. Travis Head received his second consecutive Allan Border Medal from former Australia captain Allan Border at an event in Brisbane on Friday. Last year, Head won the Allan Border Medal by a big margin and was close to winning several other awards too. This year, he secured the honour by a narrow margin after votes from players, umpires and media. Head edged South Australian teammate Alex Carey by one vote and Mitchell Starc by three votes. His match-winning 163 in the New Year's Test at the SCG, his third century of the Ashes series after moving up to open the batting, played a key role in helping him secure the award. Head stood out from fellow AB Medal contenders Carey, Starc and Smith by finishing the voting period as Australia's leading Test run-scorer and the top batter in the ODI team. He scored four centuries during the 2025-26 season, including a quick 142 against South Africa in Mackay, a match-winning 123 in the Perth Test and a 170 in Adelaide that helped Australia retain the Ashes. With this win, Head joined teammates Steve Smith and Nathan Lyon as multiple-time Allan Border Medal winners. He also became the fifth Australian to win the award in consecutive years, joining Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, David Warner and Shane Watson. Head said he felt honoured to have Allan Border present the medal and described winning two AB Medals as a special achievement that he could share with his children in the future. "(I felt) very privileged and honoured to have 'AB' (Border) in the room; that's the difference (from last year's presentation in Sri Lanka), is having him there to present it. To think that I've got two medals and my kids can look at them and I can tell them (about it) in 20 years' time is pretty cool," Head said after winning the award. (ANI)
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