The impact of the left-hander’s absence is clear amid Australia’s poor start to the tournament.
ESPNcricinfo Staff
Travis Head has returned to the net for the first time since breaking his hand in South Africa and is hopeful he can depart to join the squad for the World Cup in India on Thursday.
Head had his cast removed late last week and now faces decommissioning. Scans have shown that the fracture sustained by Centurions fast bowler Gerard Coetzee is healing well, but he still needs final approval before he can join the Australian team.
Head’s earliest return seems likely to be against the Netherlands on October 25th, but it could still work out.
“It’s going well, probably better than we expected,” Head told cricket.com.au. “When I made the decision not to have surgery, I was told that it would take 10 weeks for me to fully recover, but that I would need to wear a splint for at least six weeks before I could play again.
“If we follow that plan, the game against the Netherlands will be a fairly tight schedule, starting in less than six weeks, so everything will need to go perfectly from here on to meet the deadline.
“But we’ll just see how it develops over the next few days and I’m excited at the prospect of joining up with the players over there later in the week.”
Head’s importance to Australia’s plans was such that selectors opted to keep only 14 players available for the first half of the tournament, effectively replacing Ashton Agar with Marnus Agar to compensate for Head’s absence. This was emphasized by the use of a specialist batter named Labuschagne.
Since his return in 2022, he has had an impressive batting average of 60.84 and a strike rate of 119.84 for the ODI team. Former Australia captain Aaron Finch said the impact of his absence was evident during the team’s early struggles.
“Sometimes it’s not so much the amount of runs he gets, it’s the pressure he puts on the opponent because they know he’s coming hard. They panic and their mindset is a little bit defensive. and then, [David] If Warner escapes, [Mitchell] When Marsh comes in, he runs away too,” Finch told ESPNcricinfo.
Australia are yet to score a half-century in the tournament but have been bowled out with scores of 199 and 177 in two matches. However, many heads will be required to participate and perform immediately.
While the selectors have high hopes for Head’s abilities, there is still the possibility of selecting a replacement for Head, and that possibility may increase if Australia fail to beat Sri Lanka on Monday. Advance to the semi-finals.
“There are still some hurdles to clear. Everything needs to fall into place from my side and the team’s perspective before a final decision is made,” Head said.
