Follow UsAustralia have made their worst start ever to an ODI World Cup in this century. Not only did they lose their opening game against India in Chennai, they followed it up with an embarrassing loss against South Africa. Ordinary batting is one of the primary reasons behind their terrible start to the tournament.
Travis Head’s absence at the top of the order has cost Australia dearly, affecting the batting unit's balance. But the southpaw has given a timely update on his return to the national setup, stating that the injury is ‘probably better’ than they hoped.
"It's coming along well, and probably better than we hoped," Head told cricket.com.au today.
"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,” he added.
Australia’s next clash in the tournament is against Sri Lanka before they face Pakistan on October 20 in Bengaluru. But Head hinted that there is a slight chance of the left-hander making his return in the clash against the Netherlands.
"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.”
"I wasn't even sure I'd be able to bat when the splint came off but, apart from a fair bit of stiffness given I hadn't been able to use it for the past four weeks, I was able to hit balls and play a fair range of shots,” he added.
However, batting is just one part of the bigger problem. If Head does return to the playing XI, will his injury hamper his fielding?
"I'm not sure what it will mean for fielding, we haven't explored that yet," he said.
“So 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."