'I will put myself in this year', Travis Head confirms participation in forthcoming IPL auction

One-half of Australia's dynamic opening duo in ODI cricket, Travis Head has confirmed his participation in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, slated to be organised in December.

"I was restricted a little bit on time last year with getting married. I will put myself in this year and hopefully get picked up and get an opportunity. It was nice to be involved in it a long time ago," Head told reporters in Kolkata ahead of Australia's semifinal clash against South Africa at the Eden Gardens.

The southpaw is one of the Aussies who haven't played enough in the lucrative Indian T20 league. Head represented Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) during the 2016-17 season and has featured in a total of 10 matches.

Head has been lately focusing on Test cricket predominantly and that has rewarded him well. He was Australia's third-leading run-getter during the Ashes 2023 behind Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith. Having cemented his place in Australia's red-ball squad, the 29-year-old now wants to "explore opportunities" in the other formats and "get more experience and learn".

"I feel like the game has evolved now and, next year, we have a massive



block out, where I can play a fair bit of white-ball cricket if I get picked up or find myself in some teams around the world, so this is a path that I wanna try to explore.

"Having put all the eggs in the red-ball basket for a period of time now and I feel like I am really in good space mentally in my game and if I can transfer through formats well then I am eager to explore what those opportunities are and get more experience and learn," he added.

Head immediately made an impact on his return to the playing XI and scored a match-winning ton against New Zealand in Dharamsala and is cognizant of the fact that Australia have the opportunity to win their sixth ODI World Cup title.

"I'm sure everyone has thought about that. It hasn't really been spoken about as a group, but we know what's at the end of this tournament and what's up for grabs," Head said.

"You've got to make the semis to give yourself a chance and if we do things right in a couple of days' time we find ourselves in a final. That's in the future, but geez, we've put in a lot of hard work over the last couple of months to get to this stage, so we want to make the most of it," he concluded.