Cricket fans have voted overwhelmingly in favour of Travis Head – not Steve Smith – to take over the Test captaincy if Pat Cummins misses the Sri Lanka tour in January. The Aussies will head to Sri Lanka in the new year for two Test matches on January 29 and February 6.
But Cummins has flagged the possibility he’ll skip the tour to be at home with wife Becky as she’s due to give birth to their second child. If Cummins is absent, Smith would be the most likely option to assume the Test captaincy as he’s the current vice-captain and former skipper.
But a poll of 7000 Yahoo Sport Australia readers has revealed Head is the favoured option amongst fans. At time of publishing, Head had 52 per cent of the vote compared to 35 per cent for Smith. Teammates Alex Carey and Mitch Marsh both had three per cent each, while seven per cent of readers voted for ‘someone else’.
The push for Head to take over as captain comes amid uncertainty around Smith’s future in the Test arena. There’s a growing chain of thought that the 35-year-old Smith won’t be playing Test cricket much longer, while Head is about to turn 31 and has many years ahead of him.
Head has been Australia’s best batter in the current series against India, winning player-of-the-match honours in the second and third Tests. He’s cemented himself as one of the country’s most important players, and would seemingly be the next vice-captain if Smith retires.
The Australian Test team is set for a changing of the guard in coming years, with Usman Khawaja recently turning 38, Nathan Lyon 37, Mitchell Starc 35 in January and Marsh 33. Cummins is only 31 and still has a lot of cricket ahead of him, but if Smith is on the verge of retirement it might make more sense to make Head the vice-captain moving forward.
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And that might involve elevating Head to the captaincy for the Sri Lanka tour if Cummins is absent. But with World Test Championship point on offer, the Aussies might stick with the familiarity of having Smith as skipper considering he’s done it many times before.
Smith was the Test skipper until 2018 when he was sensationally banned for 12 months and stripped of the captaincy after the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. He was banned from holding a leadership role for two years, but has filled in for Cummins on a number of occasions since the ban was lifted.
Cummins revealed in October that he regrets how much of son Albie’s first few months he missed, and wants to be around more for Becky this time. “It’s definitely a factor,” he said about the prospect of skipping the Sri Lanka tour. “It’s pretty hard to plan exactly the day, but definitely. I missed a big chunk [of son Albie’s early days] last time and I want to work out how we can spend a bit more time at home for that initial period this time.”
Calls for Travis Head to step into Test captaincy role
Speaking on SEN radio this week, reporter Michelle Bishop said: “It’s obviously Steve Smith and Travis Head who are in the running to replace him (Cummins). It’s an interesting one because Smith is a proven captain, but Head is so popular with the players – he’s been described as ‘unifying’ and ‘uplifting’.”
Former NRL player Scott Sattler said: “I wonder if handing him the captaincy would put extra pressure on him that he doesn’t need, or push him into another stratosphere…Steve Smith has certainly served his penance.”
