Australian batsman Travis Head performs a shot throughout the ODI World Cup 2023 match in opposition to New Zealand at the HPCA floor in Dharamshala on October 28, 2023.
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy
Travis Head has had to wait for years for a chance to open for Australia, and now that the likelihood has arrived he intends to make the most of it, the batsman stated after Saturday’s five-run win over New Zealand at Dharamsala.
Head, who began opening six years after his 2016 One Day International (ODI) debut, set the tone for the highest-scoring match in World Cup historical past by hitting 109 off 67 balls in his first match again since fracturing a finger in September.
His 175-run opening partnership with David Warner (81) was the spotlight of Australia’s 388-run innings.
“I think that’s been a spot that I guess waited for, obviously, with (former captain Aaron Finch) playing for such a long period and their partnership being so good,” Travis advised reporters after successful the Player-of-the-Match award.
Finch and Warner had been a longstanding opening duo for Australia in limited-over cricket, and performed a serious function in the crew’s 2015 World Cup win.
Head made his ODI comeback in February 2022 after a three-year absence, scoring a century in opposition to Pakistan as an opener. Later that 12 months, he changed Finch as an opener as the latter retired from worldwide cricket.
“The limited chance I had I was able to take and sort of waited a couple of years for that spot to open up,” Head stated. “So, that’s never guaranteed and I’ve got to perform and I’m lucky enough to be able to put a string of a few performances together that hopefully make that a spot where Dave and I have obviously got a great partnership.”
Marsh, who changed an injured Head as an opener, scored 150 in Australia’s first 4 World Cup matches.
Australia have received 4 in a row after dropping to India and South Africa, rising to fourth in the desk with eight factors as they head to Ahmedabad to face defending champions England on November 4.
