Travis Head set to fly to India as Australia receive fitness boost

The 29-year-old batter has not featured since fracturing his left hand against South Africa on September 15

Joe Williams | 15/10/2023 at 15:05

Travis Head has given Australia an injury boost with the batter set to join the World Cup squad in India this week.

The 29-year-old has not featured since fracturing his left hand against South Africa on September 15.

Head's presence would be a welcome sight to an Australian team that has struggled in their opening encounters, losing comprehensively to India and South Africa.

Australia play Sri Lanka on October 16 and the Pakistan on October 20; both will come too soon for Head, with the fixture against the Netherlands on October 25 earmarked for his return.

Despite it only being a month since injuring his hand, Head is happy with how the rehabilitation is progressing.

"It's coming along well, and probably better than we hoped," he told cricket.com.au.

"When we decided not to go with surgery, which would have meant a 10-week recovery, we were told it would be minimum six weeks with the splint before we could look at playing again.

"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.

head151001

^{Travis Head is nearing his return (Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images)}

"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."

Head could be crucial in turning Australia's fortunes, since 2022 he has averaged 60 in ODIs, as of yet none of the Australian batters have reached 50 in India.

The batter is scheduled to fly to India from Adelaide on Thursday and by the time he arrives, Australia will have six games remaining in the group stage.

There is a potential scenario where Australia's chances of progressing are extinguished before Head can feature, in which case it is likely he would be replaced in the squad rather than risking his injury.

He said: "There's still a few hurdles we need to clear, and everything needs to fall into place from my end and from the team's point of view over there before the final decision is made.

"But hopefully that's all good, and I'm on the plane on Thursday."