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Australia's hard-hitting opener Travis Head is hopeful of making a comeback and progressing to T20 World Cup 2026 Super 8 after a 23-run loss to Zimbabwe at Colombo's R.Premadasa Stadium on February 13. Head recalled Australia's ODI World Cup 2023 campaign when they started their campaign with a six-wicket loss to hosts in Chennai.
“We've been here before. We said at the toss a little bit about 23 and having injuries and working through navigating through tournament play, which is typical. And we're seeing a lot of tight games. All the teams are very good. And yeah, we've found ourselves in this position before. We had a few guys in that dressing room who were here in India in 23 that navigated through that and we ended up on the right side of it. So, we'll go back to the blueprint of that to keep as much confidence in the dressing room as possible and two more games to win,” Head said in the post-match presentation.
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Head scored 17 runs from 15 balls and became part of the collapse. Brad Evans bowled a good length but there was lack of pace. Head dragged it back to his stumps. With his wicket, Australia were 29/4 in 4.3 overs in the run chase of 170. Matt Renshaw and Glenn Maxwell did damage control. In the slog overs, Australia lost too many wickets and Renshaw’s half-century wasn’t enough to get them close to the target.
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Head was asked whether he took the wrong decision by opting to bowl first in Colombo. He felt that Sri Lanka posted a below par score, especially considering the start they had.
“Yeah, we thought it was a good wicket. It was a little bit tacky at the start. We thought it was going to be pretty even throughout the whole contest and I think it showed that it was. I thought we did ok although we'd taken only two wickets in our innings, I felt like it was still probably under-par. So, felt like it came on really well in the second innings. We lost wickets. The first half was under pressure. They played well, like I said, I still felt like if you gave us that score after winning the toss and applying off it did, I think we'd take the score. So, I don't think, like you look back and there's no over here or there that you might do differently or switch around, but I felt like we worked through it well and we were on the score that we would have been happy to chase,” Head said.
“The feedback throughout was it was a good wicket. We put ourselves under pressure, obviously losing wickets in the power play. And like I said, put some pressure and the scoreboard rate went up. We, I guess, found a partnership through the middle, but probably left ourselves a little bit too many and that happens. So, it's disappointing, but that's the game,” he added.
Injury woes for Australia
Skipper Mitchell Marsh is yet to recover from the groin injury he suffered in the nets. His absence was felt in the run chase as Australia weren’t able to get off to a flying start. Meanwhile, at the coin toss, Head revealed that Marsh’s standby, Steve Smith is yet to join the squad in Sri Lanka. Head said that Smith was playing golf a couple of days ago. In addition, Marcus Stoinis suffered an injury in the hand while bowling in the game against Zimbabwe.
Australia’s must-win games
After their defeat to Zimbabwe, Australia slipped to the second spot. They face co-hosts Sri Lanka in their next game on February 16. Sri Lanka are unbeaten in the tournament so far, getting the better of Ireland and Oman. Australia’s last group stage game is against Oman on February 20. Australia also need to win by big margins to improve their net run rate (NRR).
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