Cam Green's return for WTC Final sees Labuschagne do a Smith

Green's inclusion means the elders have to move chairs to accommodate

Glenn McGrath didn’t like it when it happened to him, but Cameron Green was an anonymous and almost emotionless bystander when Alex Carey pulled off that controversial stumping of Jonny Bairstow off his bowling in the 2023 Ashes.

McGrath doesn’t like to be reminded of the time Adam Gilchrist stood up to the stumps and removed the bails on a stranded Craig McMillan back in 2005. It was,a fter all, something of an insult for a bowler who considered himself a paceman.

Green’s role in the Bairstow stumping was pretty much incidental. Indeed, it was as close to a run out as it was a stumping – how the hell do you get a stumping when you’ve bowled a bouncer? – but he was credited with the wicket, and you’re going to take that when you’ve 35 Test scalps.

The reason it comes to mind is that his return to the side coincides with the Australians’ return to the scene of the crime.

Green has not played a Test match since he turned out against New Zealand at Christchurch in March 2024 but has made it back into the XI for the WTC Final against South Africa which begins Wednesday.

He will bat at No. 3 and will not bowl, as his back is still recovering from a stress fracture that has kept him out of the game for the past year.