Travis Head returns to nets; hopes to join Australia World Cup squad soon

Australia's Travis Head returned to nets on Sunday having recovered from a fracture on his left hand, and the middle-order batter is expected to travel to India on Thursday to join his country's World Cup squad.

Head had his protective splint removed from his hand on Friday. The South Australian had suffered a fracture on his hand after getting hit by South African pacer Gerald Coetzee at Centurion ahead of the World Cup.

Although he might miss Australia's fixture against Pakistan on Friday in Bengaluru, Head could feature against the Netherlands on October 25 in Delhi, provided he passes the fitness test.

"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 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