(Cricket News) Travis Head, 29, was officially promoted to co-vice captain of Australia’s Test team alongside Steven Smith. Current captain Pat Cummins stated that Head has all the makings of a future Test leader as they work to future-proof the leadership stocks within Australian cricket.

On Wednesday, just one day before the first Test against Pakistan in Perth, Cummins also revealed Australia’s XI, which includes just one change from the last Test they played back in July at The Oval against England: Nathan Lyon returns from injury to replace Todd Murphy as the lone spinner.

Smith, who captained Australia in 34 Test matches between 2014 and 2018, is still the senior vice-captain and will be the first choice to replace Cummins when needed. In the last two years, Smith has filled in for Cummins in four different Test matches when Cummins has missed games due to various reasons.

When Tim Paine was captain, Head and Cummins shared the title of co-vice-captain of the Test team. Mitchell Marsh and Josh Hazlewood, who had been installed in the positions in October 2018 after a team vote in the wake of the sandpaper scandal, were replaced by Paine’s new deputies in February 2019.

However, Head, like Marsh and Hazlewood, lost the title when he lost his Test place after being dropped from the side during the 2019–20 home series against India.

Despite being controversially left out of the first Test in India earlier this year, Cummins stated the decision was done with the future in mind, but Head’s incredible run of success over the last two years across all formats has cemented him in the team.

“We are thrilled to have Travis Head join the team as co-vice-captain,” Cummins stated on Wednesday. “We felt it was appropriate to formally acknowledge his leadership role as he has been a member of our team for a while.

Although there are no plans to leave, we believe that since Steve will not be playing or captaining the team forever, we have an obligation to prepare the team for the future and to begin presenting other players with leadership roles.”

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