Head count grows as Cameron Green hit

Australia has been rocked by another head injury scare to one of their young gun superstars, after Cameron Green copped a brutal hit while bowling at the SCG.

Austraia A’s Cameron Green after being hit in the head from a shot by Jasprit Bumrah during the tour match at the Sydney Cricket Ground

Australia has been rocked by an escalating selection crisis, with rising star Cameron Green the latest player in doubt for the first Test with concussion and Joe Burns miserably out of form.

Just three days after Will Pucovski was struck by a bouncer, Green is also facing the prospect of his dream Adelaide debut being shattered, after he copped a brutal hit to the head while bowling, which immediately ruled him out of the rest of the final tune-up game against India with “mild concussion”.

It’s almost incomprehensible that the two once-in-a-generation talents who have had Australian cricket buzzing this summer could both miss the Test due to head knocks, but that’s the very real possibility facing selectors just five days out from the series opener.

To make matters worse, embattled opener Burns made another duck for Australia A on Friday night which has made him almost unselectable, except for the fact Australia may still have no choice but to pick him if Pucovski and Green join David Warner as officially unavailable for Adelaide.

Fellow Australia A opener Marcus Harris made just 26, but given the circumstances he is now well in contention to play the first Test.

The key difference in the two concussion dramas, is that Friday night’s freakish blow was Green’s first ever concussion, while Pucovski is recovering from his ninth.

In one positive, Green was cleared of any physical injury after having the ball smoked back at him by India’s Jasprit Bumrah, striking him flush above the right eye, near his temple.

But he left the SCG and returned to the team hotel, as selectors Trevor Hohns and George Bailey talked at length during the dinner break, as headaches conspire against them.

“Cameron sustained a mild concussion while bowling for Australia A against India at the SCG today,” said CA team doctor, Pip Inge.

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“This is Cameron’s first concussion. He has returned to the team hotel and will not play the remaining two days of the tour match. We will continue to monitor him and provide an update on his condition in due course.”

Green left the field immediately for an assessment after delivering the first ball of his seventh over, barely getting a finger in front of the return strike before it burst through to hit him flush.

India’s non-striker Mohammed Siraj immediately dashed to Green — as he lay on the ground — instead of running between the wickets, while umpire Gerard Abood signalled straight away for the Australia A team doctor to come to the pitch.

Green appeared in remarkably good shape as he walked unassisted from the field, but less than an hour later he was walking out the back of the SCG and into a parked car still dressed in his whites, as teammates checked on his welfare.

Sources spotted Green walking into a scanning facility near the SCG but CA said he has been cleared of any physical injury.

The 21-year-old all-round sensation was firming for a Test debut in Adelaide.

“The two names on everybody’s lips around Australia were Pucovski and Green and they’ve both been hit on the head the last three days and both had to leave the field,” said Kerry O’Keeffe in commentary on Fox.

Green had earlier taken the key wicket of Shubman Gill in a further example of why there were calls for selectors to get him into the Test side any way they could.