Australia v India schedule: Greg Chappell says Cameron Green should make Test debut this summer
Talented West Australian run machine Cameron Green has received high praise from one of Australia’s greatest-ever batsmen, likening him to the great Ricky Ponting and pushing his case for a Test debut.
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Cameron Green is the best Australian batsman Greg Chappell has seen since Ricky Ponting and one who could be key to winning the 2020-21 Ashes.
The former selector believes that with the Indians in the country for the Test series the time is right to pick the talented 21-year-old, who many believed would only play if he was bowling.
Injured last year, the all-rounder has since played state cricket solely as a batsman and has displayed form that demands selection.
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The West Australian scored 197 against NSW in the last Shield match, his fourth first-class century from 17 games, and has averaged 74.5 since the beginning of last summer.
Green came to attention when he took a five-wicket haul against Tasmania on debut as a 17-year-old while batting at No.8.
The tall youngster is ready to return to bowling but Chappell said it was important to get into the Test team as a batsman before the strains of the Shield circuit saw him break down again — as young bowlers inevitably will.
The first Test is more than a month away. There are two rounds of the Shield before then and few spots open in the middle order. Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne are immovable objects. Tim Paine is going nowhere and Travis Head defended his place with a resounding 171no for South Australia while Paine was keeping in the last match against Tasmania.
Matthew Wade has left a door open by opting to skip the first two Shield rounds to spend time with his family.
While some counsel patience with Green, Chappell believes elite young players learn best when thrown in at the deep end.
“This is a serious player, this is a special player,” Chappell said. “He is the best young player I’ve seen since Ricky Ponting. He is our next superstar.
“You just have to pick him now before he breaks his back and he can’t play.
“My greatest fear about him is that everyone gets excited about his bowling and the kid can bowl, he is a rare talent there as well. But you know that if he bowls 20 to 30 overs a game for Western Australia he will break. Or break again.”
Justin Langer was the Western Australia coach at the time and Chappell rang him to say he had a kid “who could be anything”.
Langer is certainly aware of Green’s emerging skills and Paine is on board after seeing him bat in the Shield last year.
AUSSIE GUNS GOING INTO TEST SERIES COLOUR BLIND
The ‘big four’ of Australian Test cricket are likely to go into next month’s blockbuster series against India without having sighted a pink or red ball for almost 12 months.
Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, David Warner and Josh Hazlewood will return from the IPL choc-full of Twenty20 cricket, but with no long-form match play since the Sydney Test in early January.
In the tightly-compacted schedule there will be just one opportunity for the superstar quartet to have a last-minute tune-up on December 11, when Australia A plays a three-day pink ball tour match against the Indians under lights at the SCG.
However, it’s understood selectors will lean towards not playing Cummins, Smith, Warner and Hazlewood for Australia A because giving them a mental and physical freshen-up after months overseas in the bubble will be of greater importance.
Virat Kohli and India’s IPL stars are every chance to play in that match in what could be an unusually high profile tour game even without the likes of Smith and Warner, with Fox Cricket to send out their own commentary team to broadcast it live.
“We’ll wait for Cricket Australia to announce the schedule, but if quality cricket like that is available, Fox Cricket will certainly be looking to show it,” said Fox Cricket chief, Matt Weiss.
“We’ll be hoping some of the biggest superstars in the game will warm-up for the day-night Test.”
The Indians – who named their squads on Tuesday – will have the same concerns about freshening up their stars after the IPL, but are more likely to field a Test-like team at the SCG given they purposefully requested a pink-ball warm-up game to prepare for their first-ever day-night Test on Australian soil.
India has already lost stars Ishant Sharma and Rohit Sharma to IPL injuries and during a COVID summer, ensuring players don’t burn out is seen as a huge priority leading into the first pink ball Test which kicks off on December 17 in Adelaide – particularly when Smith, Warner, Cummins and Hazlewood have been isolated in an overseas bubble since late August.
The four – plus India’s IPL stars – will only just emerge from their two-weeks quarantine in Sydney from November 11 before launching straight into a white ball international series against India spanning from November 27-December 8; playing two one-dayers and two T20s in Sydney and one of each in Canberra in the middle.
In another quirk of the COVID schedule, there will be two tour matches played between Australian and Indian teams before the Test series – the first at Drummoyne Oval in the middle of the limited overs series – meaning both heavyweights will have seen plenty of each other before ball one in Adelaide.
Mitchell Starc will return for NSW on Friday, alongside Tim Paine, Matt Wade, Travis Head, Nathan Lyon, Marnus Labuschagne and Joe Burns in the Sheffield Shield.
Selectors will look to play some of these red ball stars combined with bolters like gun all-rounder Cameron Green in the first tour match between Australia A and India’s red ball only players at Drummoyne.
It’s unknown at this point whether the Australia A side for the second and final tour game at the SCG will feature any Test players, but the option is there for selectors if they do change their minds on Smith or Warner, or need to get another hit or gallop into someone.
Even for players of Smith, Warner, Cummins’ and Hazlewood’s class, not having a proper red or pink ball warm-up is far from ideal, particularly going into battle against Kohli and the world’s best.
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In Smith and Warner’s case, their nearly 12 months without a red ball match, comes only two summers after they also served a year-long ban from all formats for ball-tampering.
The SCG may throw the gates open to Sydney’s large Indian fan base for the tour game, and Fox Sports believe the prospect of Kohli playing a prime time pink ball game is worth making a big deal of to launch what shapes as a bumper Test series, which looks increasingly likely to include a Boxing Day Test in COVID-free Melbourne.
Originally published as Australia v India schedule: Greg Chappell says Cameron Green should make Test debut this summer