MELBOURNE – All-rounder Cameron Green may be spared white-ball duty for Australia to focus on his red-ball ahead of next summer’s Test series against India at home, coach Andrew McDonald said.
Green played Sheffield Shield cricket with Western Australia ahead of the ongoing Test series in New Zealand and said the red-ball preparation helped him prepare for his match-winning 174 not out in Wellington’s opener.
McDonald said Green can get a similar lead to the five-Test series against India and rest from the scheduled ODIs and T20Is against Pakistan that start the domestic summer.
“I’d probably like to err on the side of red-ball preparation for him. We know how good a white-ball player he is, so you prioritize what it’s going to look like next summer,” McDonald told reporters.
White-ball cricket is important, but that Test summer is important, so I think with the results he’s had (in Wellington) he’ll probably come to us and say, ‘Can you give us a couple of Shield games before the first Test? against India?”
Australia beat the Black Caps by 172 runs at Basin Reserve, a margin of victory almost equal to Green’s first innings, the second hundred of his Test career.
Green followed up his century with a vital 34 as Australia were bowled out for 164 in their second innings.
Wellington cemented Green’s ownership of the fourth slot, long held by one of the nation’s greatest batsmen, Steve Smith, who now opens the batting with Usman Khawaja following David Warner’s departure from the format.
Green’s stock rose as team-mate Marnus Labuschagne plummeted, the number three games revealed in Wellington, where he managed a total of three runs.
Once Labuschagne scored a century for fun, he did not go past 10 runs in the last six Test innings.
Ahead of New Zealand’s second and final Test, which starts in Christchurch on Friday, McDonald said there was no big concern with Labuschagne’s form if his team-mates were pulling the weight.
“We want the first six, seven batsmen to perform as a collective,” he said.
“Can he perform better? There’s no question about that. He knows it? He knows it.”
“Over time, there will be ebbs and flows in your career.”
