NEW DELHI: According to head coach
Andrew McDonald
,
Australia
's
Cameron Green
is expected to forego the white-ball series in
Pakistan
later this year in favor of playing
Sheffield Shield
in order to get ready for the highly anticipated home Test series against India in December.
The 24-year-old found success in the current Test series in
New Zealand
, as he struck a career-high 174 not out in Australia's decisive victory in the opening game on Sunday in Wellington.
The recent T20I series between the West Indies and New Zealand did not feature him; instead, he was saved for West Australia's Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania in Hobart, when he amassed an undefeated 103 runs, which served as a perfect warm-up for the first Test against the Kiwis.
"It's a big decision to leave anyone out of international cricket when they're potentially in the best eleven, so I'm glad he (Green) embraced that when we had that conversation with him, and the return on it is pretty immediate," MacDonald said.
"The next stress point on that will be next summer, leading into the Indian Test series where we've got Pakistan in ODI cricket and T20 cricket. 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, so you put a priority on what it looks like next summer.
"The white-ball cricket's important, but geez that Test summer's important, so I think with the results he's had (at Wellington) he'll probably come to us and say 'can you give us a couple of Shield games before the first Test against India?'."
After a white-ball series in Pakistan in November that includes three ODIs and three T20Is, Australia will tour England in September for five ODIs and three T20Is.
The five-match Test series for the Border-Gavaskar trophy in Australia in December 2024-January 2025 will come after this.
Australia have not beaten India in a Test series for a decade, which includes India's past two visits to Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21.
"He's become an all-three format player and we thought his greatest challenge was flipping between the formats," McDonald said of Green's increasingly vital all-round asset.
"We felt that by keeping Cam (Cameron Green) in one format for a period of time gave him the best chance, and that won't always be the case with everyone.
"Other players can go (more readily) from one-day international cricket into Test cricket, and it's probably the more experienced players who have done it over a period of time."
The fact that Australia rearranged their batting lineup following
David Warner
's retirement highlights how important Green is to their preparation for the Test series. Green has been placed in his number four role, and senior batter Steve Smith has been moved up to the opener's spot.
Furthermore, given that Green would be playing lots of 20-over cricket during his future IPL stint, it was decided that playing Shield cricket would be more beneficial for him than recent T20Is, even if Australia is also gearing up for a T20 World Cup later this year, for which Green is still in the selection mix.
(With PTI inputs)
English (US) ·