“You have to move on” - Travis Head urges Australian team to move on from WTC 2025 Final defeat

Australian middle-order batter Travis Head has urged his teammates to move on from the WTC 2025 final defeat to South Africa and look forward to the West Indies Test series, starting on Wednesday, June 25, at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.

Notably, Australia failed to defend the WTC mace as they suffered a five-wicket loss to South Africa in the WTC 2025 Final at Lord's in London earlier this month. That said, they are in the Caribbean Islands for a three-match Test series and a five-match T20I series.

"There's added motivation to go out there and play well. We didn't play well (against South Africa) and it's unfortunate,” Head said ahead of the first Test vs West Indies.

"We put two years of hard work into one week and didn't quite go to plan and the opposition played really well, so there's another motivation," he added.

"We've got two more years to build, and this is another first look at it so I think if you dwell on it for too long or if you look back you forget about what's moving forward," Head stated.

"As hard as that is, we play so much cricket and are so used to that but of course we care and of course it's not ideal but at the end of the day you can't change it so you have to move on you have to get back on the horse and you have to play good cricket," he observed.

"I think a lot of guys are wanting to do that we've had a little bit of time to reflect and I've got time to prep and we're going to another Test series that we're hopeful to play well in," he noted.

It’s important to note that Australia will be without their key batter Steve Smith, who has been ruled out of the first Test due to a finger injury, which he sustained during the WTC 2025 Final against South Africa.

Also, the Cricket Australia selectors, led by George Bailey, axed Marnus Labuschagne from the first Test. Instead, Sam Konstas and Josh Inglis have been named in the squad to replace the two batters.

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