ADELAIDE: Austra­lian opening batsman Travis Head has returned to batting for the first time since he fractured his left hand and could join the World Cup squad on Friday, Cricket Australia (CA) said on Sunday.

Head broke his finger during a One-day International match against Temba Bavuma-captained South Africa last month but was included in the 15-man World Cup squad as selectors hoped he would be fit in time for the latter stages of the tournament.

If his recovery is on schedule, the left-handed batter is set to fly out of Adelaide on Thursday and land in India a day later, with an eye on a return for Australia’s group fixture against the Netherlands in New Delhi on Oct 25.

“It’s coming along well, and probably better than we hoped,” Head told cricket.com.au website.

“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 time 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,” the batter expressed.

Head says there was stiffness having had a splint for four weeks but was able to bat and play some shots.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2023