Australian Selectors To Give Serious Consideration To Carrying Injured Head Through First Half Of World Cup
Despite the widespread injury concerns, the Australian national team's selectors are giving serious consideration to playing injured star Travis Head through the opening half of the World Cup.
In an effort to have Travis Head available for the championship match, Australia is giving serious consideration to the possibility of playing with one less player for the first half of the World Cup.
After suffering a hand fracture during the most recent match of the tournament against South Africa, Head will not be available for selection until at least the halfway point of the competition has passed.
However, because of the left-hander's exceptional capacity to single-handedly win the World Cup for Australia, there is an increasing desire to take the risk of playing him in the early games in the expectation that he would be able to return and play a game-changing role in the finals when the pressure is at its highest.
The first of Australia's three warm-up one-day international matches will take place on Friday evening local time in Mohali, India, and will be broadcast live on Fox Cricket and Kayo. The match will begin at 6:00 pm Australian time.
After the Indian series, selectors will have until next Thursday to submit a final 15-man selection to the ICC. Much, including Head's inclusion, will depend on how crucial players perform in their comeback games this week.
If Head were Australia's lone injury concern, the team would take a chance on him making a comeback at the tournament's halfway point.
The choice over Head is made more tenuous by the fact that Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins, and Mitchell Starc have yet to play a match, and Ashton Agar and Sean Abbott are all dealing with fitness worries.
Going into important early World Cup games against India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan with only 14 players available (or less) is playing with fire when there is no clarity as to how other batsmen like Smith (wrist) and Maxwell (ankle) would perform in their comeback to match action. This is living dangerously.
It is especially dangerous if the selectors are unable to find a method to include the player who is currently doing the best, Marnus Labuschagne.
Labuschagne is not currently in the World Cup roster; nevertheless, the Test batting powerhouse has smashed the competition with runs in South Africa and would appear to be a high percentage selection in these conditions where so many players are in jeopardy of missing the tournament.
If Smith can come back in Mohali on Friday night looking like a million bucks at No. 3, he will be in a position to significantly calm the situation.
If the selectors are convinced that they have enough hitters to win early group games without Head, then it would be a huge boost to have the South Australian powerhouse back in the fold for the business end of the tournament.
On the other hand, if Australia starts off poorly in the World Cup while Labuschagne is watching from home in Brisbane, the selectors could find themselves in the middle of a political firestorm.
Is there any chance that Head and Labuschagne will be able to make it into the top 15?
Head is an essential element in Australia's World Cup chances, both for his aggressive and fast-scoring opening partnership with David Warner and for his effective off-spin in a tournament where totals might be enormous.
With Agar still in Australia for the birth of his child and separately battling with a calf, Australia does not have a reliable finger spinner, and Maxwell is not anticipated to play in the first ODI against India and may have to be controlled through the early games of the Cup.
If Agar cannot provide proof of his fitness by next Thursday, Queenslander Matthew Kuhnemann could be considered as a late bolter.