Australia vs India test: Cameron Green blow opens up selection lottery for tour
Australia’s settled team for India has suddenly become a selection lottery with fresh news on Cameron Green throwing the side into disarray 10 days out from the first Test.
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Australia’s settled team for India has suddenly become a selection lottery, with Cameron Green unable to bowl in the first Test starting in 10 days’ time.
Green may still make the side as a specialist batsman, but losing his all-round prowess as a strike seam bowler completely changes Australia’s thinking and effectively stops them from being able to potentially pick three spinners in Nagpur, on what is anticipated to be a turning minefield to open the series.
As a result, the stakes have now risen in the race to partner Nathan Lyon as Australia’s second spinner, with Ashton Agar, Mitchell Swepson and Todd Murphy all starting their auditions early on Sunday, as the Aussies brought Nagpur to North Sydney with scarified decks and steamy 31-degree heat.
The profound impact of not having Green available as the key link-man in the side has been exacerbated by the fact India’s superstar spinning all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is now roaring towards the first Test after taking seven wickets in his return to first-class cricket from injury.
Peter Handscomb and Matthew Renshaw may now be in first Test contention for Australia as well, although Green is valued so highly as a batsman he would likely still play as a batsman if fit.
Green is hoping for clearance from a specialist on Monday to return to full duties from the finger he fractured during the Boxing Day Test, but his workloads aren’t expected to be up enough to bowl in a first Test team, which will already be missing Mitchell Starc.
Nagpur was the venue where spinner Jason Krejza took 12 wickets on Test debut back in 2008 and was the most likely venue for Australia to consider playing three spinners. But no longer.
“It probably (would have been) more likely if Cameron Green was fit and available fully with the bowling side of things. That’s not realistic, so I think it’s probably further away than it would have been had Cameron been fit,” Australian coach Andrew McDonald said.
“Where’ he’s positioned at the moment, his biggest challenge is bowling. There is a lack of loading there, and it’s one of the key reasons around us getting into this camp and this mode early is to make sure that we’re ready to go for the rigours of what the bowling unit is going (to face).
“His bowling will be his greatest challenge. He’s got to consult with the surgeon again tomorrow and that’s about the four-week mark – where he should be given a tick of approval that that bone has healed.
“After that it should be just building him up and see how he goes each session. Building confidence is the main thing.”
On the positive side, left-arm weapon Starc is progressing better than expected and was bowling at close to full pelt on Sunday, albeit with a splint still guarding the middle finger of his bowling hand.
Starc has already been ruled out of the first Test, but he may fly over during that match now to increase his chances of being picked to return for the second Test in Delhi – in what would be a major boost.
McDonald was full of praise for North Sydney Oval curator Kieran Meurant for being able to successfully replicate turning Indian conditions for Australia’s spinners to practice on.
It was a deliberate decision to pull Swepson and Murphy out of the Big Bash and have them prioritise the ‘spin camp’ at North Sydney.
The sapping heat in Sydney on Sunday was a bonus for acclimatisation, as McDonald defended Australia’s decision to not play a practice game when they get to India.
“We haven’t played a tour game for three years. It’s not new to us, put it that way,” he said.
“We value freshness at the back end of the tour. Something we’ve seen (is) teams go there and expend a lot of energy at the front end … you never get guarantees over those practice game surfaces you get. Often there’s no real connection between that practice game into the first Test.
“We feel as though we can control the surfaces here.
“Kieran has done a fantastic job to produce exactly what we want. We feel as though out there the surfaces we got are very similar to what we’re going to confront in India.
“We are starting to get into that really tactical layer. Also the physical preparation. The fact (the spinners) are going to be required to bowl heavy overs.”
Nedd’s ‘uncomfortable’ truth for Aussies ahead of India
— Robert Craddock
What better way to prepare for the toughest tour in cricket than by rubbing shoulders with the toughest man in the country.
When times get rugged, wickets few and days long on Australia’s four Test tour of India, captain Pat Cummins can be comforted and inspired by the thought he knows someone who’s pushed the pain barrier even further into the red zone.
Need Brockmann, the young tradesman who raised $1.85 million for the homeless by running 4000km across Australia last year, was invited to meet the men’s and women’s Australian teams in the closing weeks of the season.
“I love meeting people who have done incredible things,’’ Cummins told News Corp.
“It’s just the physical toil. On a much smaller scale you can relate to it as a fast bowler.
“His mantra is just keep showing up. Just keep finding a way. I think you need a bit of that in Test cricket, especially as a bowler. You are going to fail as often as you go well. Just keep rocking up. It is half the battle, especially in a foreign place like India.’’
Brockmann’s mantra of “get comfortable being uncomfortable’’ might well have been invented for an Indian tour where the host nation have lost just one of their last 30 home series.
THE GAME PLAN
In 2004, Australia won in India for the only time since 1969 with a simple but brilliantly effective game plan to bowl at India’s strengths, feed their leg side play but cover this region with a deftly placed field.
Can it work again?
“I think it is definitely an option for sure. You go there with a few different plans. Plan A which is normally what you do best as a bowler then a plan for what happens if a batter faces 50 balls. What can we throw at him?
“Maybe in India, where there is not a lot of bounce you do bowl a tighter line using the up and down bounce and going on the body a bit more. They are all things we will talk about once we get over there.’’
When Australia beat Pakistan in Pakistan, claiming a 1-0 win on the final day of the final Test it was a victory for a plan designed by Cummins with coach Andrew McDonald to win the series in 15 days on grinding, bat-friendly pitches.
Can that one work again?
“Not particularly because you get the full spectrum. I think in some ways it is India and Pakistan mixed together. There will be times when we have to play attritionally. Ranchi on the last tour was a five day draw yet you can have a two-day match like the Pune one, similar to how we played in Galle on the Sri Lankan tour. You have to be able to adapt.
“Sometimes you just have to take your medicine and other times you have to take the game on.’’
MICHAEL CLARKE’S PREDICTION
Michael Clarke knew Pat Cummins was a future Test captain before Cummins did.
He said as much to News Corp on February 27, 2018, to be the first big voice to encourage Australia to break convention and look at Cummins as a future Test skipper.
Cummins has had no recent contact with Clarke since his blow-up in a Noosa park but has appreciated Clarke’s support over the years.
“He has always been a wonderful supporter of me, especially starting out. I loved playing while he was captain. He made me feel a million bucks. I have not seen him for a little while.
“I remember him saying it (the captaincy tip) quite a while ago. It sort of came from left-field because I hadn’t really had any experience. Of course it’s great having a past captain think those thoughts. It certainly gave me confidence.
“Even winding it back 12 months there were so many unknowns going into a new role. There was a bit of trepidation there. I am certainly glad I ended up taking up the role.’’
THE MINDSET
Experienced journalist Bharat Sundaresan, born and raised in India but now living in Adelaide, knows both sides intimately and believes one of the reasons this calm, relentless Australian side can beat India is that they will not make life hard for themselves by turning a nation against them.
“You just can’t beat India in India when you stir them up and home but Australia no longer plays this way,’’ Sundaresan said.
Cummins said: “We try to concentrate on ourselves more than we have in past tours. Our team is quite settled. There are a lot of people who are comfortable in their own game and their own skin.
“Of course there are going to be times when emotion rides high. Throw exhaustion into the mix. I think we have shown over the last 12 months we have been able to hold it together when we need to. That is certainly the plan.’’
THE OLD BOYS
There is no doubt the departure of Justin Langer created a significant rift between the current players and former greats who played with Langer
It was reported Cummins met with Adam Gilchrist during the summer and Cummins feels there is no lingering tension.
“I came across a lot of them throughout the summer. There is no issues at all. The players get along well with the former players and we have all moved on from the conjecture of the past.’’
One player Cummins did not see during the summer was his former fast bowling teammate Mitchell Johnson who was critical of the way Cummins treated Langer. Johnson will commentate for two Tests in India which may give them the chance to mend the bridge.
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