Technique, bat swing key in hitting: Head

Australia opener Travis Head revealed that the left-handed batter is working on his technique to get into good positions to hit the ball after his 23-ball 59 set up a 28-run win in the first of the three-match T20I series against England in Southampton on Wednesday.

The left-hander dispatched Sam Curran for 30 runs in an over, including three consecutive sixes to different areas of The Rose Bowl, the highlight of which was a lofted drive into the stands over point while down on one knee.

Head rarely gets inside the line of the ball in T20 cricket, preferring instead to stay towards the leg-side, which helps him access both sides of the wicket from the same strong base.

That same Curran over featured fours through the covers and over mid-on, as well as sixes over square leg, midwicket and point.

According to Opta, his split of runs in the shortest format over the past 12 months has been 52 per cent off-side and 48 per cent leg-side, a slightly more even distribution than his career split of 55-45.

Within that 12-month period has been a breakthrough Indian Premier League campaign with Sunrisers Hyderabad as well as the recent T20 World Cup where he was Australia's top run-scorer (255 at 42.50).

"If they present opportunities to score, I'm trying to be present and ready to go and really still to access all the ground, which I felt like I did," Head told Cricket Australia after the match.

"I haven't played a lot of T20 cricket until the last 12 months.

"Working on my game, a lot comes down to the technique and what I'm trying to achieve out of my swing.

"So I feel like I'm in really good positions to hit the ball."

It was a trait noted by England captain Phil Salt, although he was powerless to stop him in his first match as skipper as Head (59 off 23) and Matt Short (41 off 26) blazed 86 runs from the Powerplay in the first T20 – Australia second highest six-over score behind their record 1-113 against Scotland last week.

"It's where he hits the ball from and which lines, you've got to be very, very precise where you're bowling at him," Salt said of Head.

"He's not very conventional in that way, losing his front side very early and creating a few different swing planes from a technical perspective makes him very hard to bowl at.

"They came out swinging, they came out hot … it's always a job to shut someone down who's going that well and 'Shorty' was backing him up nicely at the other end."

Head reached three off six balls in Southampton before exploding against Jofra Archer, Curran and Saqib Mahmood with 56 runs from his next 16 balls to finish the Powerplay.

He told cricket.com.au post-match that he "matched really well" with Short, who replaced Jake Fraser-McGurk at the top of the order against England after the young opener's lean run in Scotland.

Short grabbed his first chance last night in the race to succeed David Warner as Australian T20 opener, but no matter who partners him, Head revealed the method would still be the same.

Head was out on the last ball of the Powerplay but said he had been given the freedom to maximise the first six overs as much as possible.

"The mantra at the top has stayed the same with some different personnel throughout, but I've built pretty relationships with all the guys and enjoy batting with all of them," said Head, who has opened with Warner, Fraser-McGurk, Short and Steve Smith this year.

"We complement each other in different ways; I thought 'Shorty' started exceptionally well today with a matchup that he thought was right, and it gave me little bit extra time to get myself in … and then was able to get away.

"So pleased with the way I was striking them, would have loved to have gone on with it, but I felt like we set pretty good platform for the boys behind us."

Head has become a staple in Australia's T20 team and his form in the 20-game has exploded as a result. He has played more T20 cricket in the past year than he had in the previous six, so it's no surprise he's produced all his best knocks for Australia in the same period.

Head's five T20I half-centuries have all come since September last year, and he added another scintillating innings, the 19-ball fifty against England.

He also hit a 25-ball 80 against Scotland last week, equalling Marcus Stoinis' record for the quickest half-century by an Australia man (17 balls).