Travis Head to open when he's fit to play, reckons George Bailey

When Travis Head fractured his left-hand last month, he was all but out of the World Cup. But Cricket Australia decided to take a careful approach to his recovery. To have him for the World Cup, they decided not to opt for surgery, which would have taken him another ten weeks to recover.

Now, Head is set to join Australia's World Cup squad in Delhi ahead of their clash against Netherlands at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. However, that has left the team management in a dilemma, with Mitchell Marsh and David Warner doing well as openers. Despite that, national chief selector George Bailey reckons that Head will open the innings with Warner whenever he’s fit to play.

"Clearly, he (Travis Head) comes in at the top," Bailey said. "He's been fantastic there for us and that's where he'll slot in. And then we'll just work out (the Playing XI) when it is, who we're playing, the surface, and what you might need."

"It can be a six to eight-week injury. He's ticked all the boxes in terms of the four-week scan, and the bone has healed, so that's all going well, and he's progressed really well through the week (since he started batting)," Bailey said.

"But clearly, the whole point of having him (in the WC squad) and carrying him to this point is not to then risk it by bringing him back early. So, if it works out for that Dutch game, great. If it's a little bit further on, then that's okay."

Australia, who were down and out after losing to India and South Africa, respectively, got their campaign back on track after beating Pakistan by 62 runs at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.