Green injury creates new selection possibilities

Will the quicks survive the summer and is there a chance Aaron Hardie could be called on …

Artwork by Fisher Classics via SirWellsy99

IN the last month selectors have said they intend to pick the best six batters for the first Test against India, Pat Cummins has signalled an intention to lean more on the bowling of one of those batters, Cam Green, and Cam Green noted that his body was feeling the best it ever had.

How quickly things have changed.

The best laid plans of the Australian summer are now facing a stress test which, fittingly, swings on whether Green’s back is suffering from a stress fracture.

If the worst is confirmed the debate about who should open begins to share billing with the as-yet-unventilated issue about bowlers backing up for all five Test of the Indian summer.

Green’s injury may already have had a knock on effect.

Mitch Marsh excused himself from Sunday’s final match of the ODI series against England (damp squib of a thing finished with the English winter asserting). Marsh had brought himself on to bowl a handful of overs in the fourth match, presumably because Green was on the way home. It was the first time he had bowled in an ODI match since last year and one assumes that’s the reason he pulled up sore.

Marsh assures everybody he is fine, but that is what they say in these circumstances.

This does not bode well for a summer where the Cummins, Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood would have been hoping for some more input from the all rounders. In fact, bowling contributions from the all rounders appear critical to getting the seamers through all five games.

Cummins had already penned both in for extra work during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

“It is been huge having the allrounders. In some ways, we have not had to use them as much as we thought we would. Which is a great thing. The last couple of summers have been pretty light [with] quick Test matches," Cummins told Cricinfo.

“I suspect this summer might be a bit different at the time. We will be drawing on Cam Green and Mitch Marsh a bit more. Even someone like Cam basically started in Shield cricket as a bowler but has not had to bowl heaps in Test matches. Now he is a few years older, I think we will be leaning on him a bit more.

"The first point is they both absolutely make the top six on their batting alone which is a luxury," Cummins said at the launch of Play Cricket week. "We're really lucky that Nathan Lyon bowls plenty of overs, so you don't necessarily have to have an allrounder, but it makes a big difference to have that fifth bowling option. And with someone like Cam and Mitch we have six bowling options. It's a really nice thing to have. Top six should always make the team on their batting."

The Australian side has rearranged itself around Green, unsettling the natural order to include him at No.4.

His inclusion saw Steve Smith move up to opener. Few are comfortable with that and recent weeks have been consumed by people convinced they have a better option. Travis Head should open. Mitch Marsh should open. Mitch Marsh should be dropped and Cameron Bancroft open. Steve Smith should open. Travis Head should open. Cameron Green could open. What about Matthew Renshaw? And does anybody remember Marcus Harris?  

Now you might even start hearing talk about Aaron Hardie making an appearance in the Tests against India. Marsh’s injury history suggests the five Test summer could strain a physique that, in the manner of an early Shane Watson, is as sculpturally impressive as it is structurally fragile.

Hardie, 25, has three first class centuries and knocked over Will Jacks with this “almost unplayable”  delivery in Bristol the other night (Australia won via DLS, securing the match up 3-2, Travis Head bowled so well they kept him on at the death).

If the Border Gavaskar trophy was being held in India there’d be an argument for including Glenn Maxwell, but as it is being hosted by Australia the only chance of this happening is if the SCG suffers some form of acid flashback and demands the inclusion of two spinners.

Gideon argued recently that Australia had placed so much value on the difficult-to-fill all rounders role that it had become greedy when Marsh and Green both proved fit and in form at the same time. As attractive as a menace-a-trios may seem, you can probably assume that the monogamist gets more rest and has a simpler time of it.

If the worst proves to be true with Green’s injury then the best that can be hoped for is that he plays as a specialist batter and his 174no against New Zealand toward the end of last season proves he is up to that task.

We’ve been here before in first class cricket.   Green announced himself with a five wicket haul in his first outing against Tasmania while still a teenager, but when he hurt his back he was moved up the order and proved to be more than handy with the bat.

Greg Chappell knows a bit about this stuff and while very positive about Green on the recent Cricket Et Al podcast he sounded a note of warning about his ability to spread himself across all formats of the game.

“I think I've always thought that number four was probably the spot for him,” Chappell said. “You know, initially number six when he was  getting into the team and just fighting his place in Test cricket, but eventually number four would be the right spot for him.

“It's really hard, you know, again, I've watched so many young cricketers playing so much cricket in the in the different formats is a real challenge. It’s much harder for for the young players of today to adjust to all those different different formats and I think Cameron has had a had an issue with that, which I think hopefully he'll get through it okay, and it'll work out fine.

“In my, my view, he's still a batsman first and, and a bowler second, but very handy bowler. And one who will offer some very handy overs to to  whatever format.”

Instructively, Green was a common topic among Indian cricket social media users over the weekend but that was fans of the Bangalore franchise fussing over how, or whether, he can be retained under the new IPL regulations. (My favourite take away from there is the rule that prohibits sides paying more to a foreign players than it pays its local stars. Hey, it’s their game and everyone else should be grateful just to be allowed to share it.)