ODI World Cup 2023

Travis Head’s wait for elusive ODI World Cup debut continues, Aussies make one change for clash against Netherlands

The mighty Aussies are currently locking horns with an impressive Dutch unit led by Scott Edwards at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi in Match 24 of the Cricket World Cup. As of now, Australia has played four games, winning two and going down in two. The 5-time champions started the tournament terribly, losing by huge margins to India and South Africa before reviving their campaign with two consecutive wins against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Both the wins were extremely convincing and Pat Cummins and Co. will be able to notch up a third successive victory today. Things have started well for Australia as they won the toss and elected to bat first on what looks like a lovely wicket to bat on. The ground dimensions only add to the joy of batters. Ahead of the game, Australia received a huge boost as Travis Head joined the squad after missing out on the last few games due to a hand injury.

Travis Head remains on the sidelines

Head who arrived in Delhi on Friday has had a couple of net sessions too. However, the aggressive southpaw will have to wait for his World Cup debut as he continues to Pat Cummins believe that “the bridge is still too far”. Consequently, Head was not included in the playing 11 today. In his absence, Mitchell Marsh continued to don the opening duties alongside veteran David Warner.

At one point, Head’s participation in the quadrennial tournament was in danger but he has won his race against time, much to his and Australia’s delight. “When it happened, I thought my chances were done but as those three or four days played out and I got back to Sydney and specialist and whatnot, there was light at the end of the tunnel to potentially get back if all went well and everything seems at the moment to be going well”, Head said ahead of the game.

Young all-rounder returns

As such, Australia has made just one change to the side which featured against Pakistan, with the young Cameron Green coming in for Marcus Stoinis. The latter was unavailable for this game owing to a calf niggle.

Australia and the Netherlands met in a warm-up fixture in Thiruvananthapuram in which the Dutch gave the favourites a scare. In what was a rain-reduced affair, Australia could only manage a total of 166 for the loss of 7 wickets in their 23 overs. The Dutch batters could not replicate their bowlers’ success as they lost 6 wickets for just 84 runs before rain had the final say.

Netherlands will look to put up an impressive show once again while Australia will look to notch up a third successive win. If the first happens, we’re all in for an excellent contest which will only add to the tournament’s flavour.