Australian head coach Andrew McDonald sounded confident of opener Travis Head making a comeback to the team for Wednesday’s game against the Netherlands. The Southpaw missed Australia’s opening four World Cup games after suffering a left-hand fracture while on Australia’s tour of South Africa before the marquee event in India.
The Aussie opener’s recovery from injury coming along better than everyone hoped with sights set on a World Cup return. The five-time champions were hammered by India and South Africa in the marquee event in the opening two games before coming back stronger to beat Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the next two games.
Speaking to the media ahead of the game against the Netherlands, Andrew McDonald is optimistic about Travis Head’s chance to make it into the playing 11 and was happy with his recovery process so far. The Left-handed opener would be a valuable addition to the team given his recent form in International Cricket.
“We’re really optimistic that he’ll be available should all things go well today and as I said, most importantly, the way he pulls up tomorrow will be a key factor, It’s been really impressive the way he’s gone about his recovery. We’ll just wait and see what it looks like in terms of the Netherlands if Head is fit,” Andrew McDonald said.
A short delivery from Proteas seamer Gerald Coetzee in the fourth ODI struck Head on the left glove, shattering his left hand, which ruled him out of the game for a considerable amount of time. Australia eventually dropped the match and went on to drop the series by a score of 2-3.
We Feel Like That’s A Really Good Combination – Andrew McDonald
Andrew McDonald claimed that Australia will be aiming for more powerplay wickets after their last three games were derailed by potent opening batting partnerships with Adam Zampa being exceptional for them in the middle overs to change of fortunes. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood are likely to continue to open the bowling for the team in the remaining games.
“Ideally we don’t want to be relying on middle over wickets, That combination of Starc and Hazlewood have really dove-tailed well in the powerplay. One’s economy rate is ridiculously good and the other one’s got the wicket-taking ability. We feel like that’s a really good combination,” Andrew McDonald added.
Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood, and Pat Cummins will likely be the seam-bowling attack for the Australian team against the Netherlands. The five-time champions would look to put on another clinical show to register a hat-trick victory in the marquee event.