Australia's Head resumes batting after fracture, eyes return at World Cup

Australian opener Travis Head has returned to batting for the first time since he fractured his left hand and could join the World Cup squad on Friday, Cricket Australia said on Sunday.

Head broke his finger in a one-day international against South Africa last month but was included in the 15-man World Cup squad as selectors hoped he would be fit in time for the latter stages of the tournament.

If his recovery is on schedule, the left-handed batter is set to fly out of Adelaide on Thursday and land in India a day later, with an eye on a return for Australia's group fixture against the Netherlands in New Delhi on Oct. 25.

"It's coming along well, and probably better than we hoped," Head told cricket.com.au.

"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.

"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."

Head says there was stiffness having had a splint for four weeks but was able to bat and play some shots.

Australia are winless in two games and sit ninth in the standings ahead of Monday's game against Sri Lanka in Lucknow.