Cameron Green set to make Test debut

Cameron Green, the young star dubbed Australia’s best talent since Ricky Ponting is set to make his Test debut on Thursday against India.

Cameron Green after being hit in the head from a shot by Jasprit Bumrah

Cameron Green, the young star dubbed Australia’s best talent since Ricky Ponting is set to make his Test debut on Thursday against India.

Subject to final tests following the concussion he suffered last week, Australian coach Justin Langer has confirmed Green will play in Adelaide, and also ruled out the prospect of moving Marnus Labuschagne to open.

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It would appear Matthew Wade is now the new favourite to shift to the top of the order to accommodate Green in the middle-order, however the one decision Australia is yet to make is what it’s opening combination will be.

Langer said selectors are yet to make a decision on whether Joe Burns will play the first Test, but the fact Green is debuting suggests Wade will open.

Which means perhaps the final selection decision is whether Burns or Marcus Harris takes the final opening position.

Langer said Green had passed a fresh concussion test with flying colours and is progressing well to one of the most anticipated debuts in Australian Test history.

The Australian coach labelled Wade Australia’s “Mr Fix It” and said he would handle opening duties if he does end up being promoted.

Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne and Michael Clarke have all pushed Wade to open in the first Test, and Langer said Ponting is one man whose opinion he trusts.

Langer said Australia wanted the continuity of Labuschagne staying at No.3.

“They won’t be able to be absolutely definite until he pulls up well in the morning and has one final test in the morning,” said former Cricket Australia doctor and respected concussion expert, Peter Brukner.

“Both the SCAT and the CogSPORT computer test and they’ll want to be absolutely certain he’s 100 per cent.”

Selectors called in Moises Henriques as a shadow player on Monday. But the presence of the all-rounder might not be as much about him being a like-for-like for Green as a sign that Australia is poised to rejig its top order to have either Labuschagne or Wade open the batting.

Henriques’ selection suggests selectors are comfortable they have enough opening options and he is on standby to cover a hole opening up in the middle-order.

Green arrived in Adelaide on Monday with fellow stars Henriques and Mitchell Starc, and it’s understood he’s been symptom free for a couple of days.

There were immediate fears when Green copped the nasty blow to the side of the head from the return slog from Indian batsman Jasprit Bumrah that he may have suffered a facial fracture and he was immediately sent for scans.

Green was seen entering the imaging facility behind the SCG just over an hour after the incident, but was cleared of any fractures.

With headaches being one of the key early signs of concussion, Brukner says it may have been difficult ascertain whether that was indeed concussion or the physical impact of being hit so hard.

“I was more worried about his cheekbone to be honest. I thought he might have fractured a cheekbone and when there’s a lot of pain it’s very hard to determine is the pain just from the ball whacking you in the cheekbone or is it coming from inside your head,” said Brukner.

“So that can be very hard to determine. I suspect his wasn’t too bad and was primarily just the bruising to the cheekbone as much as anything and that the actual concussion was pretty mild.”

All Australian cricketers are tested at the start of each season to determine a baseline for their cognitive functions.

They have their eyes, their balance and all their functions tested, and it’s against those metrics that doctors can determine whether a player has returned to ‘normal.’

There is a separate CogSPORT computer test which is standard across most Australian sports, and is the equivalent of memory computer games where certain puzzles are matched up and reaction times are measured.