Exclusive| Travis Head wary of 'Ravindra Jadeja' Challenge in T20 World Cup 2024, Says 'India Will Have...'

Australia World Cup winning batter Travis Head reckoned T20 World Cup 2024 will be very similar to the Indian Premier League 2024 because almost every team got a batter to play at number eight in the marquee event which is scheduled to be played in USA and West Indies from June 2. Head, who is currently playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the ongoing IPL 2024 is in the form of his life as he scored 533 runs in 13 outings at an average of 44.41. SRH suffered a heartbreaking eight-wicket defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL 2024 Qualifier 1. Now, they need to win the Qualifier 2 to seal their berth for the IPL 2024 final. 

Head was the superstar batter for Australia in the ODI World Cup 2023 which was hosted by India. Head slammed 137 runs in 120 balls to help Australia clinch the World Cup title for the record sixth time. 

During his exclusive conversation with Sports Tak. Head said that IPL will make a huge impact in the T20 World Cup 2024.
 

“Yeah, I feel like we'll see very attacking cricket in the World Cup. I think it's actually very similar to the impact player, whether you got a batter at eight. Look around all the teams that are pretty stacked in the World Cup that you have batters at seven and eight. We'll have Mathew Wade at eight, West Indies have Andre Russell. Yeah, India will have Ravindra Jadeja at eight. So like teams gonna go hard at the top. A winner, I like to say Australia, but I think there's four or five teams that are in the hunt for that. So every team's pretty stacked and every team's looking strong. So you just want to make sure you're in the right space at the right time to make it, to have a plan. So it's an exciting time” Head told Sports Tak. 

 

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Notably, Head was the highest run-getter for Australia in the World Test Championship 2023 final where he notched scores of 163 and 8 to help Australia crush India by 209 runs at The Oval June 7. 

 

Ravindra Jadeja in IPL

 

On the other hand, Ravindra Jadeja is also a proved game changer as he was the reason behind Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) IPL 2023 title triumph which helped MS Dhoni add fifth trophy in his cabinet. In IPL 2024, Jadeja amassed 267 runs and picked eight wickets. Unfortunately CSK are out of the tournament after losing against RCB, which cost them the playoff berth. 

 

Here are Australia and India T20 World Cup 2024 Squad

 

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj.

Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan

 

Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.

Travelling Reserves: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Matt Short
 

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