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The door is open for “everyone” to earn a baggy green after Nathan Lyon’s shock Test call-up, Cameron White says.
The Australian Twenty20 captain could not hide his bemusement on Friday over the South Australian spinner’s surprise selection for the upcoming Sri Lankan Test tour.
Lyon usurped Steven Smith in the squad despite playing only four first class games and not being offered a Cricket Australia contract as one of the nation’s top 25 players.
Asked what message Lyon’s selection sent players, White said: “Very interesting question.
“It is a tough one for me to answer.
“It seems as though the door is open for everyone in first class cricket, one-day cricket, and Twenty20 cricket to play Test cricket – if that makes any sense.”
White was preparing to fly out on Saturday morning for Australia’s two T20 internationals in Sri Lanka.
But the focus quickly centred on Lyon, who was initially expected to be picked in the T20 national side after last summer’s heroics with the ball.
Indeed Lyon’s domestic form in the game’s shortest forms made national selectors sit up and take notice in 2010-11.
Yet his name was called out in the Test squad this week.
Lyon sealed a Test nod with a star turn on Australia A’s recent tour of Zimbabwe – in the one-dayers.
“I guess if you are in the right place at the right time you can be picked,” White said.
White knows how quickly fortunes can change.
The Victorian was in the awkward position of being dumped from the national one-day squad while being hailed as Australia’s T20 skipper ahead of the Sri Lankan tour recently.
He said he had “no choice” but to concentrate on T20 cricket – including the inaugural Big Bash – in a bid to break back into other national squads but conceded Test cricket was the “ultimate”.
Fellow aspiring Test cricketers face an interesting choice this summer after it was revealed the Big Bash clashed with the CA Chairman’s XI game against India in Canberra.
The Bash’s opening two rounds clash with the four-day tour match from December 18-21 – just days ahead of the Australia-India Test series opener.
CA are reportedly yet to decide whether the Big Bash would take precedence over the tour match.
White was paraded as captain of the Melbourne Stars on Wednesday night’s glitzy Big Bash launch.
But the allrounder made it clear where his loyalties lay, saying he would want the chance to add to his four Tests.
“In my mind the baggy green and Test cricket is still the ultimate,” he said.
“It (schedule clash) is an interesting one.
“I am sure the players will be keen to get the opportunity to play in that Chairman’s XI game to give themselves the best chance to play for Australia – I think it is as simple as that.”
Australia plays T20s against Sri Lanka on August 6 and 8, both in Pallekele.
The tour also includes five one-dayers (from August 10) and three Tests (from August 31).
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