Travis Head wins back-to-back Allan Border Medals, pips Alex Carey by one vote

Travis Head has claimed the Allan Border Medal for the second consecutive year, finishing one vote clear of Alex Carey and three ahead of Mitchell Starc to take the top men's honour in Australian cricket. The ceremony was held in Brisbane, with Allan Border himself on stage to present the award ahead of the squad's departure to Darwin.

The voting period covered January 29, 2025 to January 24, 2026. Players, umpires and media each cast votes on a 3-2-1 basis per match, with Tests carrying double the weight of ODIs and triple the weight of T20Is.

Head is now the sixth player to win the Allan Border Medal more than once, joining Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Steven Smith, who each won it four times, David Warner, who won it three times, and Shane Watson, who won it twice.

"Very privileged and honoured to have someone like AB in the room. I think that's probably the difference in the two of them, is having him there, having him present it. It's something you look back on it and to have that in a picture frame later in your career, to sit there and think that I've got two medals and your kids can look at them and I can tell them how good I am 20 years' time is pretty cool," Head told Cricinfo.

How did Head build a winning case over Carey and Starc?

Head's campaign was anchored by a dominant Ashes series in which he stepped up as Test opener after Usman Khawaja was injured. He struck 629 runs across the series at a strike rate of 87.36, with three centuries: 123 off 83 balls in Perth, 170 in Adelaide and 163 at the SCG. Across 11 Tests in the voting period, Head accumulated 971 runs, nearly 200 more than Carey, who was the next-highest scorer.

Carey's challenge was built on consistency with bat and gloves. He scored two Test centuries during the period, 156 against Sri Lanka in Galle and 106 against England in Adelaide, and finished narrowly behind Head in the final tally. Head's 142 in an ODI against South Africa in Mackay is considered a factor that may have contributed to the one-vote margin, given the weighting structure of the award.

"It's crazy to think you're in that sort of category [of other winners]. I look back as a young kid and look what Smudge [Smith] did to go back-to-back through those years, and he piled on a lot more runs than what I did, certainly, and dominated world cricket a lot more than me, but it's cool to have [wins against] India and England in there and have Ashes series in there," Head added.

Which other awards were presented at the Brisbane ceremony?

Starc, who was Player of the Series in the Ashes, received the Shane Warne Test Player of the Year award after taking 52 wickets at 17.80 during the voting period, finishing third in the Allan Border Medal count. His 31 wickets at 19.93 against England came while he led an attack that was without Josh Hazlewood throughout and Pat Cummins for all but one match. Starc also took 6 for 9 against West Indies in Jamaica, the match in which he reached his 400th wicket in his 100th Test.

"Again, individual accolades and runs, and all those things I've never really been too worried about. That's why I rocked up tonight not expecting anything. To win an Ashes series is incredible. To have an opportunity to maybe win a Border-Gavaskar away, to win an Ashes away, to win a World Cup away in South Africa later in the next year, that's all I'm sorely worried about, but first we've got to play really well against Bangladesh next week." He added: "We've got a huge opportunity against South Africa, and then we play New Zealand, who are playing exceptionally good cricket. So our work's going to be cut out. I'm just pleased to be playing well, and let's hope it continues," Head said.

Mitchell Marsh was recognised as ODI Player of the Year, having scored 304 runs at 60.80 across six matches. Tim David claimed the T20I award with 395 runs at 49.37 and a strike rate of 197.50. The Belinda Clark Award, won for a second successive year by Annabel Sutherland, had already been announced earlier in 2026 after Cricket Australia separated it from the main event because scheduling conflicts with international and franchise commitments made it impossible to gather all players on a single date.