Head kicks off season with a bang

Here is a case of crash and then crash through. Travis Head first made headlines when he was hit by a car in North Adelaide and spent a night in hospital after a rare Sheffield Shield victory for South Australia over Victoria in early 2013.

On Monday, Head came through with the sort of innings that will be remembered rather longer than his accident outside the Lion Hotel. A bold and brazen yet also calculated 202 helped South Australia reel in Western Australia's seemingly distant 350. They therefore started the competition in a fashion that leaves all members of the squad feeling validated in pursuing a punishing pre-season under the tutelage of new coach Jamie Siddons and Stephen Schwerdt, an AFL fitness coach of note.

"There's a range of reasons why we've started as we have," Head said the day after his blizzard of boundaries. "Stephen Schwerdt was a great appointment, getting someone from football over we've changed a lot up with fitness, GPS and recovery, so blokes are in great nick, we've got great belief and Schwerdty's brought that to the group.

"Jamie's brought that belief, being aggressive and playing as positively as we can - I think we showed that yesterday in the way we played our cricket. That's how we want to play through the season, it's not going to work every time, but if we can play that sort of brand we'll hopefully win more time than not.

"I think that just gets us off to a great start, gives us the confidence that what we're doing in pre-season has worked a little bit hopefully, and again in this tournament situation if we can get momentum and take it to Thursday [against New South Wales] we can do anything."

Head has been the subject of rave reviews from Ricky Ponting and Darren Lehmann, among others, who believe he has what it takes to be a formidable international batsman. His elevation to lead the Redbacks at the end of last summer was a decision made prior to the arrival of Siddons and over the raised eyebrows of numerous judges - it was a lot of expectation to place on one so young.

But it was telling that his Hurstville innings was played alongside the Redbacks' senior batting pro Callum Ferguson, who has already provided valuable leavening to Head's instinctive power by showing how to look for gaps and singles in addition to fours and sixes. Their relationship as young captain and older subordinate will be pivotal to the team's hopes of seeking some rare silverware for the state. Both can benefit each other.

"It's hopefully going to be a big season for me and Callum," Head enthused of a player he declared would be pushing for higher honours this summer. "Coming into the season we want our senior players to get the runs. Callum showed that last year and was fantastic but probably didn't have the support from the others that was necessary, so hopefully this is a starting point for a big season for a few blokes.

"I've been trying to up-skill I guess and Callum's really good at using his feet, finding gaps and always been good at getting twos. For my game personally trying to be a bit more powerful and aggressive, I've definitely learned a bit from Callum about one-day cricket, manipulating fields and things like that.

"I used that in periods yesterday to get to 100. After I got to 100 Callum gave me the opportunity to take the game on a bit. But definitely to 100 Callum and I have worked really hard on picking gaps and that showed again yesterday, how good he is - he went under the radar and just kept getting ones and hitting the gaps. He's great through the middle."

Hurstville Oval's dimensions are highly favourable to batsmen, and it was in the closing overs of WA's innings that Head and his bowlers laid the foundation for a successful afternoon chase. At 1 for 246 with 10 overs remaining it was quite possible they could have been chasing anything up to 400, but a serviceable death display prevented the Warriors from launching into orbit. Training at the similarly small Adelaide Oval No. 2 had steeled the Redbacks for the chase to come.

Similarly, Head has been helped in his limited-overs development by a background with the Tea Tree Gully grade club, which in recent years has more or less made a monopoly of the Adelaide Twenty20 and one-day competitions. In that environment, Head has commonly been a younger man surrounded by others nearer to 30 years old. He duly showed composure beyond his years on Monday.

"It all started with about 15 overs to go," Head said. "At the drinks break I think we mentioned it was a big moment in the game, if we could restrict them in the last 10. Coming into the game we knew with the small field what we'd be in for, we'd been practising on Adelaide No. 2 a lot and working on match scenarios. Our batters had been batting fantastically well in those scenarios so we knew the batting was going to be great.

"Adam Zampa bowled amazingly to have 0 for 43 off 10, to do that probably put us in a good position to win the game. A couple of early wickets would be nice, we can probably attack a bit more at the front end and get ourselves an opportunity. Kane Richardson is one of the best death bowlers in the country, so if we can get him in bowling at the middle to lower order I think we'll restrict them more than having to bowl at the top five."

Next up is a full-strength New South Wales, who showed their keenness for the new season by obliterating the under-aged Cricket Australia XI in Bankstown. At the start of a season in which he wants to achieve the dual goals of lifting silverware and guiding numerous SA players into the national team, Head was in no doubt that a meeting with the Blues at North Sydney Oval would provide an ideal test of that resolve.

"It's a great challenge for us, it's the time you want to get runs and take wickets," he said. "Our boys are really looking forward to the opportunity to play a really strong outfit, and to win this tournament we're going to have to beat the best side.

"So we'll go in the same way we went into this [WA] game, we'll try to play the same way, take the game on and hopefully get the result. It'd be great to get two wins on the board. Jamie and I want to get players playing for Australia and want to get silverware. That's what we're there to do."