Image of Travis Head sums up farcical issue with Cricket Australia schedule

A photo of a dishevelled Australian star who spent days soaking up the World Cup victory has taken social media by storm.

No man on planet Earth has enjoyed the past four days more than Australian cricket hero Travis Head.

Head delivered an innings for the ages as he helped guide Australia to a six-wicket victory with 42 balls remaining on Monday morning.

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The 29-year-old was an unstoppable force as he hammered an extraordinary 137 off 120 balls, including 15 fours and four sixes.

His remarkable knock was just the seventh World Cup Final ton and the third by an Aussie.

Head further enhanced his reputation as a big-game player, adding the World Cup Final player of the match to his player of the match in the semi-final against South Africa and the World Test Championship Final, which was also against India.

So naturally, he soaked up the post-game scenes with his teammates and continued the party for days on end.

Photos of the South Australian star quickly whipped around social media as fans couldn’t get enough of seeing him revel in the victory.

Trav and Mitch Marsh soaking it up. Picture: instagram @travishead34

Now that’s a look. Picture: instagram @travishead34

Head was on fire in the final. (Photo by Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)

Then comes Thursday and a photo of Head looking like he’s just gone 12 rounds with prime Mike Tyson emerges.

The incredible photo of a man who has clearly enjoyed the past few days whipped around the internet like wildfire.

What makes the image horrifying however is that the Aussies are set to return to the pitch on Friday morning (AEDT) for the first of five T20 contests against India.

The timing of the series has already come under heavy questioning, but for Head it couldn’t have landed at a worse time.

If you’ve ever dealt with a crippling hangover, then you know the only thing you want to be doing is laying on the couch with an empty schedule.

Several of Head’s teammates believe it would be a minor miracle if he were to line up for the opening T20 clash.

Trav Head looking about as well as you’d expect arriving for the T20 series 🐐 pic.twitter.com/X5so7fsArw

— Josh Conway (@BuzzConway_) November 22, 2023

Travis Head has unwittingly become the best marketing play for this random India-Australia T20 series.

Everyone is going to tune in just to see whether and how he plays after a five-day bender. #INDvAUS

— Lachlan McKirdy (@LMcKirdy7) November 22, 2023

“I’m no selector or coach but if he plays that game it’ll be a miracle,” Mitch Marsh said as he returned back in Australia on Wednesday.

The scheduling of the relatively meaningless T20 series straight after the World Cup has left many cricket pundits perplexed and frustrated.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan wrote on social media: “It doesn’t sit right with me that the 2 finalists 4 days later will start a T20 series against each other.

“Why can’t we allow players the chance to have a moment’s rest after a WC or whoever wins the chance to celebrate properly for a couple of weeks. It’s complete greed and overkill.”

Matthew Wade will captain Australia in the series, which ends just two weeks before Australia takes on Pakistan in Perth in the first Test of the home summer.

Australia vs India T20 series

Australia vs India 1st T20 — November 24

Australia vs India 2nd T20 — November 27

Australia vs India 3rd T20 — November 29

Australia vs India 4th T20 — December 2

Australia vs India 5th T20 — December 4