Travis Head (Photo Source: X/Twitter)
The IPL 2024 auction is slated to be held on December 19, 2023. This will be the first time the auction will be held outside India, as the venue chosen is in Dubai. It will be a mini auction as this season will be the final one of all the players’ three-year contracts.
One of the players in focus will be Australia’s Travis Head. He has been part of the IPL previously, playing two seasons in 2016 and 2017 for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals, respectively. He managed 205 runs in 10 matches with the best score of 75* and picked two wickets in these two seasons combined.
But almost eight years later, Head is more mature and in the prime of his career. In his recent 16 ODIs, Head has managed 721 runs with two centuries and a best of 152. In the 2023 season, his strike rate has been 152.08 while opening the innings. Therefore he is expected to be in high demand in the IPL 2024 auction.
Here are 3 Teams that could trigger a bidding war for Travis Head:
1. Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)
Sunrisers Hyderabad struggled in the IPL 2023 despite having a very good unit. They finished last on the points table with just four wins from 14 games. They hunted on a new captain in Aiden Markram and spent 13.25 crores on Harry Brook as an opener. He did hit a hundred in the tournament but struggled otherwise.
SRH will be tempted to release Brook and free up this sum of money and go for Travis Head instead. Head opens the batting and is a proficient off-spinner as well. While he can open the batting, he can also play as a middle-order batter, partnering with Heinrich Klaasen.
2. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
Travis Head would be a perfect signing for his former franchise, the Royal Challengers Bangalore. RCB has a lot of aging superstars in their lineup and Head will be the best step in finding better replacements. The Aussie would fulfill the requirement of a left-hander in the middle order.
He will also take some burden off Glenn Maxwell in the bowling department and can possibly turn out to be a fine replacement for Faf du Plessis both as an opener and possibly as a captain also in future. To top this, Head might also keep wickets, bringing more value to himself.
Also see: 3 teams that might target Rachin Ravindra in IPL 2024
3. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
Kolkata Knight Riders finished 7th in the IPL 2023 spot and had a lot of issues with their squad composition. They tried multiple options for opening slot with only Jason Roy coming out as a viable solution apart from Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Players like Litton Das, Narayan Jagadeesan, Mandeep Singh, and others failed to impress.
This is where KKR might target Travis Head as along with Jason Roy, he will bring the consistency at the top, which Gurbaz couldn’t. Head can also keep wickets, solving the majority of KKR’s problems as they also tried out a host of keepers in Gurbaz, Jagadeesan, Litton, and Johnson Charles.
KKR is in dire need of a stable opening pair as the middle order with Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, and Nitish Rana is well set for them. Travis Head could be the answer to all of their woes.
