Travis Head was lauded for an "out of this world" innings by Australia captain Steven Smith, after his offer to open the batting in place of the injured Usman Khawaja produced one of the most devastating innings seen in Test cricket, but admitted he had to overcome some self doubt leading into the match.
Head flayed 123 off 83 balls with 16 fours and four sixes as Australia chased down 205 in 28.2 overs to complete an astonishing two-day victory at Perth Stadium when, just a few hours earlier, England were in control of the game.
Head had been lean on runs in the first part of the season with a mixture of T20Is, ODIs and one Sheffield Shield outing. He has often shown an ability to flick a switch but admitted there had been a few nagging thoughts leading into the series.
"Probably not the prep that I would have liked going into the Test, but the process was right, the method was right," he told Channel 7. "I did a lot of training. I trained all four days here, which is unheard of for me. I just found a little bit of rhythm.
"I'm never going to doubt my own ability, but I think when you have a big gap in Test cricket and you're lying in bed a couple of nights before, you're like, can I do it? Can you still produce it? Can you, as a cricketer each year, keep rolling out good scores in big moments? It's not going to get much bigger than this.
"I think your mind just takes you to, am I good enough to still do it against the absolute best? I'm pleased to slap around a little bit today and get a score and get into the series and to be 1-0 up is a great way to contribute. But I wasn't worried too much."
When Khawaja suffered further back spasms late in England's second innings it became clear Australia would again need to reshuffle the batting. Unlike the opening day when Marnus Labuschagne partnered Jake Weatherald, they opted for the aggressive route of Head, who does the role in white-ball cricket for Australia and has previous opened in Tests on the subcontinent.
"I was pretty keen to do it," Head told Channel 7. "Just felt like the moment was right. I felt like if I could get away, obviously the plans that they've had over the years with me, with short-pitch bowling where they've come to me, I thought that if I could get away with a new ball, [that could] probably take a little bit of sting out of it. [It] could help [Weatherald] at the other end…I feel like when we stack Marnus and Smudge at three and four, it just feels right. So nice that I could move up.
"Felt like I got off to a great start. Weathers played beautifully. And once we sort of got 50, 60, I thought that's a great blueprint, a great start. You see the numbers start ticking down, and you think, you've got two world-class batters behind you, hopefully make their job a bit easier."
At the post match presentation, Smith said the innings stood up against any that he had seen. "He played some outrageous shots, even when he shanked it he got it in the gaps. One of those days when you're on, you're on and you make the most of it and he got us home. We probably did quite like how it [the top order] worked in the first innings and Travis was like 'I want to do it' and I was like 'go for your life'…that was just incredible to witness.
"It's right up there with knocks I've seen from anyone. Fourth innings, albeit day two, the wicket was probably almost at its best to bat at the end there, but the way he went about his business, played some really nice shots early, and when they went short he played the way he wanted to and was kind of toying with them I suppose."
Speaking separately to Fox Cricket, Head said he would have been all right with getting out early because it was the right decision for the team. "Quite easily could have been out first over," he said. "It didn't really matter. I thought that was the right process, right way of thinking, go out there, see what happens and it's worked today."
Once the runs started to flow, Head sensed it was his moment to really unleash and produced a fearsome display of strokeplay as Australia hunted down the target at speed.
"I was able to sort of get through Gus [Atkinson] and Jof [Archer] with a new ball, who were dangerous in the first innings. Then sort of seized an opportunity where I could be a little bit more aggressive in moments when they moved the field. They started with a third man, brought third man back up, and then felt like I could get away again...and ride the wave for the first 50 runs. Then once I got past then, I thought, we'll just pin the ears back and see what happens."