'We'll Just See How...': Travis Head On His World Cup 2023 Return

image-lnr5idrxAustralia's Travis Head (Twitter)

Australia's performance at the ODI World Cup 2023 has been far from stellar. Following their defeat to India in Chennai, the team suffered a heavy loss to South Africa in their second match in Lucknow.

Looking ahead to their next World Cup clash against Sri Lanka, Australia finds some encouragement in the return of Travis Head to training. Head is on the road to recovery from a fractured finger he sustained in a painful incident during the fourth ODI against South Africa in September 2023. 



His left hand was fractured after being hit by a sharp delivery from Proteas bowler Gerald Coetzee. This injury had cast doubt on his early participation in the World Cup, but Head's progress is bringing hope to the Australian camp.

In a decision not made lightly, Travis Head was included in Australia's final World Cup squad, despite the seriousness of his injury. Nonetheless, the hand fracture meant that he had to sit out the initial part of the tournament.

"It's coming along well, and probably better than we hoped," Head told cricket.com.au on October 15, Sunday. When we decided not to go with surgery, which would have meant a 10-week recovery, we were told it would be a minimum six weeks with the splint before we could look at playing again." 

"Following this plan, the Netherlands match is just under six weeks from the impact, and it's quite an ambitious target. Everything would need to progress perfectly from here to meet that deadline."However, we'll assess how things develop in the coming days, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the possibility of reuniting with the team overseas later this week." Head explained.

When discussing his comeback, Head mentioned that the soonest he could hope to rejoin the playing lineup would be in the match against the Netherlands, which is scheduled for October 25. 

Prior to that game, Australia is set to face Sri Lanka and Pakistan.