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Australia's hard-hitting batter Travis Head is shaping up to be a favourite to win the Allan Border Medal for the Most Outstanding Male Australian Cricketer of the Year, with his domination extending to all formats.
During the voting period starting from Australia's home series against West Indies in the 2023-24 season till the end of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India, the left-hander made 1,427 runs in 29 matches and 36 innings across all formats, at an average of 43.24, with four centuries and five fifties. His best score is 154 and has emerged as the team's top-run-getter in this phase. The batter has had strong outings whenever it mattered the most, be the in franchise cricket during the Indian Premier League (IPL), in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup or the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Former Australian captain Brad Haddin has heaped praises on the big-hitting southpaw, saying that he has grown into a wonderful cricketer "over the last couple of years", a period which has seen him break the hearts of Indian fans with match-winning tons in ICC World Test Championship final, ICC Cricket World Cup final and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. "I do not think it's just been 12 months with Travis Head, I think he has grown into a wonderful cricketer over the past couple of years," he said as quoted by Fox Cricket. "We have seen how adaptable he is in his game and I think the thing now is he has added maturity. We have always known him as a matchwinner but now he has added a lot of maturity to his game, he wins a lot of the big moments for Australia." "You only have to go through the last 12 months, every big event, Travis Head's name is at the top," concluded Haddin. Head had bagged the Shane Warne Test Player of the Year Award back in 2022, but has not won the Allan Border Medal. Haddin commended skipper Pat Cummins and coach Andrew McDonald for letting Travis play his natural game and be an "out and out match winner" irrespective of the game situation. "I think Patty and the staff deserve a lot of credit for the way they have handled him, allowing him to go out and win matches." "At times it would not work, we have not seen much of that, but they have allowed him to go out and be the player he wanted to be and now we are seeing some unbelievable rewards," signed off Haddin. (ANI)
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