Cameron Green is only six innings into his Test career yet the 21-year-old all-rounder is already showing up some of his veteran teammates by putting a higher price on his wicket.
A propensity for loose stroke play seemed to prompt the recent axing of Travis Head, whose middle-order spot was taken by Matt Wade, another batsman with a habit of gifting his wicket via adventurous shots.
Three times in this series Wade has been out skying catches while attempting needlessly aggressive strokes. On Day 1 of this deciding Test, Wade was cruising on 45 when he aimed an optimistic pull shot at a length delivery from debutant left-arm paceman T Natarajan.
His dismissal brought to the crease Green, a player at the opposite end of the spectrum to Wade in several ways. The 33-year-old former wicketkeeper was brought back into the Test team during the last Ashes due to his combination of good form and vast experience.
Mature-age batsmen like Wade are picked with an expectation they can make an instant impact in Tests.
Green, by comparison, has been chosen as a project player. No reasonable selector would expect a cricketer that young and inexperienced to immediately flourish at the highest level.
The world’s best all-rounder, Ben Stokes, was carried by England for his first 20 Tests as he averaged just 27 with the bat and 40 with the ball.
Ben Stokes (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
That investment has paid off handsomely for England and Green, too, will need a similarly long rope.
Already, however, Green is batting with a blend of maturity, patience and composure the likes of Wade, Head and opener Marcus Harris too often lack.
Fortunate to return to the Australian team in this Test due to an injury to Will Pucovski, Harris was out in typically sloppy fashion on Day 1, chipping an innocuous delivery to midwicket. Harris has averaged just 13 with the bat from his last ten Test innings, and all too often fritters away his wicket.
Green, to date, has displayed two clear advantages over Harris, Head and Wade. Firstly, he is happy to bat for time. Secondly he plays very straight until he is well set. That trio of more experienced batsmen consistently get themselves into strife while unfurling horizontal bat shots.
Harris is shaky on the pull and hook shot, and lives and dies on the cut. Were a bowling attack to place five men behind square on the offside, and bowl short and wide again and again, Harris wouldn’t take long to stumble into this obvious trap.
Head, while a patently superior Test batsman to Harris, also needs to reduce his reliance on the cut.
That Head has such a blatant flaw in his technique, yet still has managed to score 1153 runs at 40 in Tests, is cause for optimism.
Many Australian fans seem to have written Head off based on this weakness, but I still see him as a long-term middle order prospect. Clearly, though, he must address that issue.
Green is also very strong square of the wicket. During his rampant run of Sheffield Shield form he punished bowlers when they dropped short. So far in his Test career, however, the rookie has largely shelved the cut and pull.
Even against spin he is making a clear effort to play in the V as much as possible. Only in Sydney, as Australia charged towards a declaration, did Green finally roll out his full array of strokes.
Those who have watched him closely in the Shield know he has the ability to cut loose.
But his preference is to play within himself for his first hour or so at the crease before expanding his repertoire. This is old-school Test batting, the likes of which was common in the pre-T20 era.
Cameron Green has made a strong start to his Test career. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
So far in this series, the only batsmen who have soaked up more balls per dismissal than Green (81 deliveries) are Marnus Labuschagne (118), Cheteshwar Pujara (112), Ajinkya Rahane (93) and Steve Smith (89).
That’s not to suggest he is without technical shortcomings. Green has, at times, become too defensive, allowing the bowlers to dictate terms.
He also has a tendency to plonk his large front pad down the line of the ball. This can force him to reach around that leg, which in turn can make him overbalance to the offside, not dissimilar to Australia’s last proper all-rounder, Shane Watson.
Crucially, Green already has showed signs he’s working on both of those flaws. It was noticeable that he tried to keep his front pad clear more often during his impressive knock of 84 in Sydney and in his follow-up innings of 47 yesterday.
In both those innings he also was more pro-active in rotating the strike. The two most impressive things about Green’s batting are very subtle and pretty boring. The first is his assured forward defence.
Green has played more solid front foot defensive strokes in his six Test innings than Harris has in his 18 career knocks. The ability to dead bat a threatening delivery is the foundation of an elite Test batsman’s game.
Green’s second key attribute is his willingness to bat time. So many Test batsmen are unwilling to weather tough periods.
Instead of identifying that the opposition attack is on song, and needs to be quelled, they try to hit their way out of trouble.
Green is clearly very comfortably bunkering down. He bats without ego. Good balls are treated as such, and terrific spells are respected.
Green recognises that, once he survives those tricky passages of play, the tide will turn in his favour.
This is a mature, uncomplicated style of batting that is made for Test cricket. Some of Green’s batting colleagues should start replicating his approach.
bowledover
Roar Rookie
Yeah, credit... he doesnt seem like he is flustered by dots which is great. And he'll get better and better at turning on when he gets the chance as demonstrated by the 80+ score. I personally think Wade is done with his continuously atrocious shot selection after getting in and harris has just proved he doesnt have what it takes at test level. The sooner Pucovski is better, the better for Aus cricket personally. Then we need to find the next opener to replace Warner. Im not writing Head off just yet, but I am not alone in expecting more from him. We also need to identify who we want to replace Paine as gloveman (think Inglis - im not sold on Carey) and get him into the squad.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
That limit applied early in the Shield season but it no longer applies.
matth
Roar Guru
I think he's limited to something like two x four over spells each day at the moment as he returns from injury? As you say it must be hard to get into a great rythm. I've seen enough from his bowling stints to indicate he will be more than useful once fully fit and with a couple of years to build some more physical resiliance.
matth
Roar Guru
And Burns is not a T20 slogger, he's just a guy who has risen to the limit of his abilities, which is probably fringe test player.
Waxhead
Roar Rookie
@Short Arm Being one of the better aussie players against spin is no compliment hehehe. I saw Burns attempt to play good spin in Sri Lanka a few years ago. Pathetic was the best I could say of him :)
Short Arm
Roar Rookie
He's actually quite good against spin & medium pacers, not sure where you've come up with that one. Even Ponting or Mark Waugh said that he was one of the better Australian's to play spin.
Gee
Roar Rookie
They will both have time to bat like Green in Shield cricket.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Apart from the slow long term recovery from stress fractures, I think Paine not giving him at least an over here or there with a new ball was poor form. He was bowling well with the old ball (at the MCG I think?), and I thought he was worth one over with the new ball, but Paine took him off straight away when the new ball is taken.
Waxhead
Roar Rookie
@Short Arm Well you maybe right about Burns not being a good T20 slogger but he's not Test standard anywhere in the order. Has been tried and failed many times and he's already past 30. He's just as poor against spin as he is against pace, or medium pace, or against anything requiring defense :laughing:
Nick Maguire
Roar Rookie
Don, and he's been getting the ball when it's old, soft and doing nothing. How he is used will make a big difference even if he only bowls 10 in an innings, when those 10 are is also important.
The Sports Lover
Roar Rookie
Great article, thank you. On another point with Greene, he is a very handy person in the field. Great catching hands.
Short Arm
Roar Rookie
Waxhead, I wouldn't put Burns in the category of a "limited overs slogger". I hope he can come back but down the order. He's shown once he gets in he can go on with it without taking too many risks like those others mentioned. He just can't handle that new ball that is seaming all over the place.
jamesb
Roar Guru
"Your early argument that he wasn’t ready was always ill-founded and flew in the face of actual performance." Still stand by my comment. With the bat, he still needs to be proactive early in his innings, such as looking for singles, instead of getting a 20 ball duck. At times he can get bogged down and has allowed the bowlers to dictate terms. He needs to avoid that, otherwise it is only a matter of time before he gets out. As with the ball, he is coming back from injury. He still has alot of development to do with both bat and ball. Having said all of that, he has had a promising debut series. He could be the key player in the 2020's.
Waxhead
Roar Rookie
@Geoff yes exactly ..... just like your average T20 player. Head does not have the technique or range of strokes necesary for Test cricket
The Don
Guest
In first class cricket, Green's bowling average is 22 with 36 wickets and I believe he broke into the WA Sheffield Shield Team on the basis of being a bowler (he was batting at No. 9 I believe in his first few games). In fact, it is only recently that he started displaying his skills as a batsman. He also took three wickets in the India A games, Prithvi Shaw (once) and Shubman Gill (twice) who are high class international batsman. I think as you say with Green the issue is that he is still recovering from a stress fracture in his back. I think once he is able to bowl unrestricted, he will definitely prove how good he is. It's also worth bearing in mind that the rest of the bowling attack is so strong, and so it's normal that he would be overshadowed (especially since he doesn't even bowl as much as the rest of the bowlers).
Brasstax
Guest
While I can understand what you are inferring, Rohit Sharma is miles ahead in sheer ability to class as a batsman. Wade is not even in the same league.
Simoc
Guest
I'm pretty sure Ponting never used the cut shot before he had a century up, if at all. I think Head should just shelve it. All these top batsmen can hit most shots but try and eliminate the get out shots at least for a period. Openers at test level shouldn't be hitting square of the wicket until well set. The problem for all batsmen is the odd loose shot and getting away with it, as Labushagne seems to do, or finding the man every time as Wade and Head do. Rohit can demolish most attacks but Australias current attack is as good as any ever, restricting batsmen who are used to scoring quickly.
U
Roar Rookie
He’s the anti Mitch Marsh. He really values his wicket. And he can catch
Micko
Roar Rookie
Diamond Jackie
Roar Rookie
Green’s father said to him as a youngster “In the ‘V’ until 33”. Superb advice he has clearly listened to. I told the same to my son as soon as I heard it. I’ll add… a sign of his overall potential is how good he is in the field. Never fielded at gully yet has taken several sharp catches to his unnatural, left side. Think of many of the greats …. Ponting, Clarke, Border, Smith etc…. and how good they are in the field.