What does Cameron Green’s future in the Australian Test side look like? Is he suited for the No. 6 role, or would he fare better up the order? Is there captaincy potential? Should he prioritise the shorter formats?
Green has been one of the most exciting cricketers to emerge from the Australian set-up over the past decade, but he enters the 2023/24 home summer with his Test career at a crossroads.
The West Australian peeled off a maiden Test century in Ahmedabad earlier this year, cementing his spot at No. 6 for the Ashes campaign in England. He suffered a minor hamstring strain ahead of the third Test at Headingley, with fellow all-rounder Mitchell Marsh temporarily replacing him in the starting XI.
However, Marsh wasn’t content with being the team’s travelling reserve, blasting 118 (118) in Leeds to leapfrog Green in the packing order. Both played the fourth Test at Old Trafford before Green, who averaged 20.60 in the Ashes, was axed for the series finale in London.
Green’s bowling and fielding, particularly in the gully region, remains a class above Marsh, but there’s no debating who is Australia’s premier all-rounder ahead of the home summer.
“He’s already knocked down the door, I’ve just popped my head up for a little while,” Marsh said of Green last week.
“I always joke that there’s probably not a lot I can teach him on the cricket field, but he knows I’m always there for him.
“Hopefully we can play a lot of cricket together at some stage.”
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Green’s batting form dipped after this year’s Indian Premier League, with the right-hander averaging 19.57 across formats since June’s World Cup Test Championship final. The 24-year-old has subsequently lost his spot in Australia’s first-choice starting XI across all three formats, carrying drinks during the recent World Cup final in India.
However, Green sent a timely reminder to national selectors last week by notching a classy 96 against Queensland in the Sheffield Shield, combining with centurion Hilton Cartwright for a 170-run partnership at the Gabba.
In his first red-ball innings since the Ashes, Green nailed an assortment of trademark drives down the ground and through the covers, falling four runs short of a tenth first-class century.
Speaking to reporters at stumps, Green confessed fatigue had started taking its toll during the Test tour of England; the 24-year-old has only spent a couple of weeks in his own bed over the past ten months, which included the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the IPL, the WTC final, the Ashes, a white-ball tour of South Africa, an ODI series in India and the World Cup.
Courtesy of the sport’s chaotic oversaturated calendar, it has become increasingly difficult for professional cricketers, let alone all-rounders, to juggle international commitments and find time for domestic T20 leagues — which is partly why Green has yet to sign for a Big Bash League franchise.
Speaking to Fox Cricket this week, former Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin suggested the injury-prone Green should consider skipping future editions of the IPL to manage his heavy workload.
“I don’t think he would have had a harder period in his career than what he has over the last six or seven months,” Haddin said.
“He spent the best part of six months away from home and he is still only a young man finding his feet in international cricket.
“He had the IPL, there is a different expectation in IPL and franchise cricket where there is high demand on you to perform night after night.
“He had the Ashes series and he came back to the World Cup, so he won’t get a harder period in his (cricket) life, and that is not just about his batting and performance, but being away from home and being able to deal with the ups and downs of touring life.
“He will have a great opportunity to sit back and reflect on that and take some good points out of it and take some points that he can maybe work on in the future, but it will also give him a plan on how he can prepare for his Test cricket.
“If you look at the three fast bowlers (Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc), they have had stages where they have sat out of IPL and prioritised Test cricket and maybe at times Cameron Green might have to do that, depending on his workload.
“I know he is still learning the craft, and IPL is a great way to do that, but if the load does get too big, he will have to make some sacrifices along the road, I imagine, to be peaking still in Test cricket.
“Every time we see him on the international stage, he gets better and better each game. We have to remember that he is only young and has not played a lot of first-class cricket. A lot of his learning is on the television in front of us.
“He is tracking in a good way at the moment.”
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On Sunday morning, Green was named in Australia’s 14-player squad for the first Test of the home summer against Pakistan in Perth, serving as the team’s reserve batter. Barring injury, it’s difficult to see how Green could feature in the Pakistan Test series.
“I think there’s some flexibility around where he can bat, so that’s another great feather in his cap,” chief selector George Bailey told reporters on Sunday afternoon.
“It’s hard to sort of project where you see the summer going. There’s plenty of things that can happen that are out of your control, but I imagine that won’t be too long before we see him back in the Test team.”
Green’s Test career appears to be in limbo, but there’s no denying he remains a crucial figure in Australian cricket going forward. Several of the sport’s modern greats were dropped early in their careers before bouncing back, most notably Steve Smith, Ricky Ponting and even Sir Donald Bradman.
His future in the Test side may not be down at No. 6, but rather up the order at his preferred No. 4 spot, where he averages 65.09 in first-class cricket and has made four of his nine first-class centuries. Smith is approaching the twilight of his professional career, and Green is the leading candidate to occupy the crucial No. 4 position after he hangs up the boots.
“It’s always nice batting up the order and I’ve done it through my junior career and I’ve done it for WA,” Green told reporters in Brisbane last week.
“I’ve always wanted to bat higher, but obviously you’ve got to put runs on the board and we’ve got quite a few guys in the Australian team making runs.
“But yeah, you always want to bat higher.”
Before the Test summer gets underway, Green will represent the Prime Minster’s XI in this week’s four-day contest against Pakistan at Canberra’s Manuka Oval. He will join fellow fringe Test players Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris and Matthew Renshaw for the red-ball contest, along with Ashes spinner Todd Murphy.
The Prime Minister’s XI match gets underway on Wednesday, with the first ball scheduled for 10.30am AEDT.
Additional reporting from Courtney Walsh
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