Head, Smith earn praise as Australian media revel in Ashes win

Travis Head’s swashbuckling batting and the decision making of stand-in captain Steve Smith were hailed as the keys to Australia’s Ashes victory over England as the nation’s media revelled in their 4-1 series win.

A five-wicket victory in the fifth test in Sydney on Thursday capped yet another comfortable home series win for the Australians, who maintained their grip on the urn for another 18 months at least.

Fast bowler Mitchell Starc was named Player of the Series but ABC’s Dean Bilton felt Head’s performances were pivotal to his team’s summer of success.

“It was the series in which he grew out of his cult hero status and fully became Australia’s best and most important batter,” Bilton wrote on the national broadcaster’s website.

“That he did it as an impromptu opener just adds to the legend.”

The series had kicked off with a win inside two days in Perth for the hosts, and Daniel Brettig said in the Sydney Morning Herald that the opening victory, featuring a second-innings haul of 123 by Head, set the tone.

“It was a dizzying series in many ways, comprising some moments of champagne cricket but many more of poor stuff that spoke to England’s ramshackle preparation for the task and Australia’s numerous vulnerabilities,” wrote Brettig.

“Like so many recent series in Australia, the opening round of the bout proved to be definitive.

“At lunch on day two in Perth, England appeared to be set fair for an opening victory that would at least give them a chance, like India last summer, of making this series a contest until its final match.

“But so awful was the subsequent batting collapse, and so outrageous Travis Head’s fourth-innings chase after making the impromptu decision to open the innings, that England contrived to lose that first test within four hours of sitting pretty.”

England’s board (ECB) said it has begun a thorough review of the Ashes campaign.