Head was hit on the hand during Australia’s series in South Africa shortly before the start of the competition, and there were initial fears that he would not be able to feature at all. However, he was named in the Australia’s 15-man squad, with the caveat that he would not be fit for at least the first half of the tournament, and would stay in Australia to continue his recovery.

Having made quicker than expected progress, Head has reportedly been active in the nets this week after removing the splint from his hand. He will fly out to Australia on Thursday, but will be unavailable for Australia’s fixture against Pakistan on Friday, October 20.

However, it is possible that Head could make a return for their following match against the Netherlands on Wednesday, October 25. That would be less than six weeks after he copped the blow.

In an interview with cricket.com.au, Head said of his injury progress: “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.

“But we’ll just see how it progresses over the next few days and I’m excited by the prospect of joining the boys over there later in the week. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to bat when the splint came off but, apart from a fair bit of stiffness given I hadn’t been able to use it for the past four weeks, I was able to hit balls and play a fair range of shots.”

Australia have lost their first two games of the tournament, suffering heavy defeats to both India and South Africa.