Cameron Green is one of the most important players for Australia’s Test side at the moment, especially after his unbeaten 174 batting at number four in the first Test against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve in Wellington. He was coming off a century in the Sheffield Shield and the selectors had deliberately kept him out of T20I series against New Zealand. Now that the move has turned out to be successful, the same process is expected to be followed before the India series at home later this year.
Australia are unlikely to pick Green for the limited-overs series at home against Pakistan allowing him to focus more on red-ball cricket. The reason for the same is lack of Test cricket Australia are playing this year. They aren’t scheduled to play a single Test before the India series after the second Test against New Zealand. Head coach Andrew McDonald confirmed the development stating that the selectors are thinking on those lines at the moment.
“The next stress point on that’s going to be next summer leading into the Indian Test series. I think it’ll be a conversation where he’s at. I’d like to probably err on the side of preparing him through red-ball. We know how good a white-ball player he is. If you put a priority on what it looks like next summer, the white-ball cricket is important but, geez, that Test summer is important. I think with the results he’s had out there, he’ll probably come to us and say can you give us a couple of Shield games before the first Test against India,” McDonald said.
As far as other players are concerned, McDonald stated that they will test the waters based on the individual’s needs. “We’ll use Shield cricket to get ready for the Test summer on an individual’s needs basis. There won’t be any [prescription that] this is what we’re doing with every player. But we’ll pick and choose what that looks like, based around international cricket,” the Aussie head coach added.