NEW DELHI: After recovering from a left-hand fracture, Australia's Travis Head returned to practice sessions on Sunday. He is set to travel to India on Thursday to join the national World Cup squad.
Head had the protective splint removed from his hand last Friday. The South Australian cricketer sustained the hand fracture when he was struck by a delivery from South African pacer Gerald Coetzee in Centurion prior to the World Cup.
While he may not be available for Australia's match against Pakistan in Bengaluru on Friday, there's a possibility that Head could participate in the game against the Netherlands on October 25 in Delhi, pending a successful fitness assessment.
"It's coming along well, and probably better than we hoped. 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," Head was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
"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," he added.
Considering the nature of the injury, Head said he was still ascertaining his ability to field.
"I'm not sure what it will mean for fielding. We haven't explored that yet," said Head.
"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," he added.
Australia are yet to taste a win in the World Cup and they are placed ninth on the 10-team table after having lost both their matches.
(With PTI inputs)
