Australia is all set to face South Africa on November 16 at Eden Gardens.
Australian opener Travis Head is excited to play more T20 cricket in the future, having spent a lot of time as a red-ball specialist. The 29-year-old has so far represented Australia in 42 Tests and 62 ODIs. However, Head also played 20 T20Is.
Head, who is currently playing in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, has confirmed that he will put his name in the upcoming auction for the IPL 2024. He's open to the quick and dynamic style of T20 cricket and is eager to give it a shot in the upcoming IPL 2024 auction.
Travis Head told reporters in Kolkata on being asked whether he will put his name in the IPL 2024 auction: “I will be in. I was restricted a little bit on time last year with getting married.”
He added, “I will put myself in this year and hopefully get picked up and get an opportunity. It was nice to be involved in it a long time ago. This is not a format I have been involved in much over the years. It was nice to be back in South Africa and contribute to the game.”
Notably, the Australian batter Head already played 10 games for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL and now he hopes to get another shot in the tournament.
Head further said about his T20 desire, “I feel like the game has evolved now and, next year, we have a massive block out, where I can play a fair bit of white-ball cricket if I get picked up or find myself in some teams around the world, so this is a path that I wanna try to explore.
Having put all the eggs in the red-ball basket for a period of time now, I feel like I am really in good space mentally in my game and if I can transfer through formats well then I am eager to explore what those opportunities are and get more experience and learn.”
Meanwhile, Australia is all set to face South Africa in the second semifinal of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 on November 16 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Speaking about his game ahead of the big clash, Head noted, “I feel like I try and give myself the best chance to score off balls that I feel like I can and respect the ones in between. I think you have to do that. It's international cricket, so I don't think it's all guns blazing every time.”
He added, “You hope you're in good positions to score and put the bowlers under pressure, but if they bowl well you've got to be able to get through it. So, it's definitely a balancing act. I feel like I'm in a good mindset to give myself the best chance to be as positive as I can be.”
Head was forced to miss the first five games at the World Cup 2023 after suffering a fracture in his hand in the ODI series in South Africa in September. However, the Aussie stressed that Coetzee didn’t hurt him intentionally and it helped him to spend four weeks with his family.
The left-handed batter added, “He did me a favor, I got four weeks at home with the family, so I got refreshed to come back. And, hopefully, I can be refreshed and energised and can perform at the back end of the tournament. It might be a blessing in disguise.”
Speaking about Australia’s chances to win sixth World Cup, Head said: “I'm sure everyone has thought about that. It hasn't really been spoken about as a group, but we know what's at the end of this tournament and what's up for grabs.”
He signed off by saying, “You've got to make the semis to give yourself a chance and if we do things right in a couple of days' time we find ourselves in a final. That's in the future, but geez, we've put in a lot of hard work over the last couple of months to get to this stage, so we want to make the most of it.”
(With TOI Inputs)