Cameron Green and Will Pucovski could make Test debuts if Marnus Labuschagne is elevated to opener
It would require a bold, risky play but Australia can quite easily get both Cameron Green and Will Pucovski into the Test XI for Adelaide if they so choose.
Cameron Green might be trapped in a queue for positions in the first Test team, but there’s one simple trick that would see him jump it.
Marnus Labuschagne has expressed a willingness to take on the challenge of opening the batting at the highest level, and this single selection move would allow Australia to unleash the talents of both Will Pucovski and Green in the series opener against India.
Green added to his 125 not out for Australia A by also storming into the attack to take a seventh over wicket on Tuesday, putting further pressure on selectors to find a way to get him into the first Test as the multidimensional x-factor India would be desperate not to face this summer.
Pucovski suffered a concussion while batting late on Tuesday. He is now in doubt for next week’s Adelaide Test.
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Shifting Labuschagne up to the frontline when he has had such world-beating success at No. 3 is a bold play and admittedly a risk, but selectors can take confidence from the Queenslander’s fearless nature and pedigree as an opener in Sheffield Shield cricket.
If Australia opened with Labuschagne and Pucovski in the absence of David Warner, then the side would lose nothing at the crucial No. 3 position because of Steve Smith.
All-round prodigy Green could then slot into a middle-order also featuring the improving Travis Head and rock solid Matthew Wade, and suddenly it’s a top six featuring all the names that have fans and selectors buzzing this summer.
If Warner is fit for the second Test at the MCG, a call can be made then on who loses out in a game of musical chairs between Green, Pucovski, Wade and Head.
Opening is a specialist position and based on his very handy Test career, Joe Burns would do a good job for the first Test.
But on evidence so far this summer, Burns has made six scores under 30, while Pucovski and Green have only reinforced their reputation as once-in-a-generation superstars in the making.
Incumbency can only get you so far, and selectors must be nervous about Burns.
Under the current thinking, Green is competing against middle-order men Wade and Head, which is why he’s likely to have to wait his turn.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
The presence of a player as flexible, reliable and willing as Labuschagne gives selectors the luxury of asking themselves, who would they prefer in their first Test team – Cameron Green or Joe Burns?
Australian coach Justin Langer is on the record as saying Labuschagne could be considered as a Test opener, and only last week he was elevated to the top of the ODI order to cover for Warner.
Labuschagne made 83 on debut batting as an opener for Queensland in Sheffield Shield cricket, and played extensively as an opener in junior cricket.
As a man who himself was best known as a No. 3 before carving out a career as one of the best opening batsmen of the past 30 years, Langer knows the characteristics of an opener when he sees one.
Losing Warner has exposed a chink in the Australian armour that India will be desperate to exploit in Adelaide before Virat Kohli himself leaves the country.
Australia can’t replace Warner’s experience based on who is in their squad, but what they can do in this situation is make the bold declaration to themselves and India that the future begins now.
Selectors will want Pucovski and Green in their XI for next summer’s Ashes.
If they’re both in the squad and both in form, the question needs to be … why not now?
ALTERNATIVE FIRST TEST TEAM
Marnus Labuschagne, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Matthew Wade, Cameron Green, Tim Paine (capt), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
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