File image of Travis Head© AFP
Aussie batsman Travis Head made his return to the nets for the first time after he suffered a fractured hand in South Africa and is expected to be able to fly out to join the World Cup squad in India on Thursday. The 29-year-old had the cast removed late last week and is now facing throwdowns. Scans have shown the fracture, inflicted by fast bowler Gerald Coetzee at Centurion, is healing well although he still needs a final sign-off before joining the Aussie squad.
The earliest possible return for Head would appear to be against the Netherlands on October 25 although that may still depend on his condition.
“It’s coming along well, and probably better than we hoped. When we decided not to go with surgery, which would have meant a ten-week recovery, we were told it would be a minimum of six weeks with the splint before we could look at playing again,” Travis Head said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
“Going by that plan, the Netherlands game will be just under six weeks from impact which is a pretty aggressive date so everything would have to go perfectly from here to make that deadline,” he added.
“But we’ll just see how it progresses over the next few days and I’m excited by the prospect of joining the boys over there later in the week,” he added.
The 29-year-old’s importance to the Aussie squad was emphasised since the selectors opted to only have 14 available players for the first part of the ODI World Cup 2023. The Aussie team selectors also had to replace Ashton Agar with Marnus Labuschagne to help cover for Head’s absence in the team.
Head had been having a stellar run in the 50-over side, averaging 60.84 with a strike rate of 119.84 since his return in 2022.
Australia are having a disappointing run in the ongoing ODI World Cup and has lost their opening two matches of the tournament against India and South Africa.
In their upcoming match of the tournament, Australia will face Sri Lanka at Ekana Sports City in Lucknow on Monday.
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