Ravichandran Ashwin labels Cameron Green a ‘once in a generation’ player after century

Cameron Green’s century has drawn the highest praise from one of India’s greatest spin bowlers, with Ravichandran Ashwin fresh off a 6-for labelling him a ‘fantastic player’.

Indian star Ravichandran Ashwin says Cameron Green is a “once in generation player”.

Green says his first century is a monkey off his back and confirmation to himself that he is a Test cricketer, but the Indians see his value beyond the international game.

Ashwin, the brilliant Indian spinner who managed six wickets from the sleeping Ahmedabad deck, says people on his side of the world know the 23-year-old is a superstar.

“I hope you tuned into the IPL auction, it just tells you how the Indian cricketing fraternity rates Cameron Green,” he said.

Green was bought for $3.15m by the billionaire Ambani family that owns the Mumbai Indians and will make his debut in the tournament there next month.

The long legged all rounder from Perth batted brilliantly in a 200 run partnership that helped Australia to its highest score in India since 2008.

Cameron Green celebrates his maiden Test century. Picture: AFP

India finally bowled its opponents out for 480 in the last session and held out the Australian attack during the last hour of play.

Ashwin was generous in his assessment of Green.

“I think he’s a fantastic player,” he said. “Just the raw materials for a person as tall as him, lovely levers, good batting sense, can bowl and really hit the deck well, moves pretty well in the field. These are once in a generation cricketers you are talking about.

“We come from different countries – India is very different, we can’t protect such players for a long period of time. It’s perform or perish, but in countries in Australia and England, they’re doing pretty well at [protecting players] and I expect Cameron Green to be a wonderful cricketer down the line.”

Cameron Green celebrates his maiden Test century 👏

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Green had eight first class centuries, including a 251, before breaking through in his 20th Test.

“He’s got his strengths and you want to stay away from his strengths,” Ashwin said.

“Clearly from what he saw in Australia – I played a practice game against him at Drummoyne Oval in Sydney. From there on, I’ve been watching him bat, how well he moves to balls outside off, how well he comes down the pitch, how he sweeps the ball when he came to the subcontinent.

“As a bowler it’s my duty to keep a check on all these things and also try to make a plan to try and make it uncomfortable for him. It was not a pitch where a lot of things were going for me.

“So I had to use the scrambled seam, drift, whatever was available. Those things [his dismissal] don’t really happen [on purpose] you don’t really get a batsman to glove one down the legside, it just happens. But I’ll happily go back home and take credit for the plan (laughs).”

Green was relieved after the innings and said it was calming to have Usman Khawaja, who scored 180 in a 10 hour stay at the crease, at the other end.

Cameron Green found it calming to have Usman Khawaja at the other end while in the 90s. Picture: Getty Images

“It was really special, obviously (being 95) over the lunch break that 40 minutes felt like an hour forty, but I was batting with Ussie the whole time, there was experience at the other end and he was batting beautifully and that helps a lot,” he said.

“It’s my 20th Test so I’ve had a good chance to see the ups and downs of Test cricket, see it for what it is. It’s an incredibly tough game, and when you get moments like that you really cherish them. So yeah I’ve seen how tough Test cricket is and I’m enjoying every second of it.

“Speaking to Uzzy it was probably the ball coming back in where you might get your leg caught in the way and that might be the way to get out. So having an experienced head down the other end, you can have these really in depth conversations and he gives you unreal info back.

“I’m trying to learn as much as I can off him, and luckily enough there are a lot of guys in the change rooms like that, you’ve got Travis Head, Marnus, Smudge, they’re all the best in the world at the moment, so I’m incredibly lucky I’ve got guys around like that.”

‘LAZY’ KHAWAJA TAKES AIM AT SELECTORS, COACHES

They said he was lazy, they said he couldn’t play spin, when they dropped him in 2019 he was devastated and thought it was all over and that’s what makes Usman Khawaja’s second coming all the sweeter.

He’s not lazy, he stood in the hot sun uncluttered for six straight hours and batted with a discipline few could muster.

Can’t play spin? There’s a few eating those words.

And as for being finished when axed in that England Ashes series … at an age when most batters are in decline this 36-year-old is in his prime.

Khawaja’s sixth Test century since returning to the Test team was the sweetest of them all.

For the third match running and for the umpteenth time in the past 12 months and a bit the opener has set up the game for his country.

Not afraid to throw a few jabs on the way past, the exhausted cricketer, took aim at selectors, coaches and the “self fulfilling” perceptions of his abilities in the past.

“I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so much on getting a century, there was emotion in it, I’ve done two tours of India before, carried the drinks for eight Test matches before I got a chance here,” he said after play on the first day.

Usman Khawaja celebrates after scoring a century during day one of the fourth Test in Ahmedabad. Picture: Getty Images

“Throughout the middle of my career I got told I couldn’t play spin and that’s why I never got an opportunity to play in India.

“I got an opportunity to play in a white-ball series a few years ago and was man of the series, got an opportunity here again with the red ball.

“It’s just nice to go out there and tick off a hundred in India which was something if you asked me five years ago if you told me that I’d think you were crazy.

“There was a lot of emotion, I just never expected this to happen.”

Playing spin, or his inability to do so, has always been a sore point with the veteran, but he admits that it was not his strength “to some extent” in the early part of his career.

“I think it was a self-fulfilling prophecy in its own way,” he said.

Usman Khawaja plays a shot during the first day of the fourth and final Test cricket match between India and Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Picture: AFP

“People start saying that then perception is reality. Anytime I got to spin people were like ‘you can’t play spin’.

“I probably started believing it myself. I didn’t really get the support from the people around me at the time. Didn’t feel like the team really supported me, didn’t feel like the coaching staff and selectors really supported me through that journey.

“It just made it so hard. Whether I was or wasn’t, yes I’m a better player of spin now, no doubt about that, I have more shots, better defence. But I didn’t really get the opportunity to learn at that early stage.

“Fortunately enough I’m quite stubborn so went out of my own way to learn then we had a couple of A tours here in India which helped a lot. Had to go back and figure it out all by myself.”

Khawaja has scored six centuries since returning to Test cricket in 2022, but this was, in some ways, the most satisfying of them.

“I didn’t really get a lot of chances in the subcontinent, in the last year and a half, I’ve played a lot in the subcontinent,” he said.

Usman Khawaja has scored six centuries since returning to Test cricket in 2022. Picture: AFP

“A lot of people talked about how flat the wickets were in Pakistan, and obviously I scored a lot of runs there. I was the only person to score a hundred there. Went to Galle in the first game on an absolute bunsen and felt like I batted well there. I felt like I’ve been contributing the whole time and that’s been the most rewarding thing because I’ve been contributing to some wins. If you get runs in a losing team no one remembers it and it just doesn’t feel the same.

“Hopefully if we can set this game up well enough, and there’s a long time to go in this game, but getting a hundred now on top of some of the runs I’ve scored in the subcontinent, been told my whole life I couldn’t play in the subcontinent.

“I do feel like that monkey went off my back when I scored that hundred in Dubai, that was Dubai, I wanted to do it in the subcontinent, so very special.”

This century was the sweetest of them all for Usman Khawaja. Picture: AFP

Khawaja, who was 104no from 251 balls, thrives in hot conditions and displayed a patience few can muster during the innings, rejecting temptation and taking his time.

“The heat’s fine, if you ask the boys I’m very good in the heat but very bad in the cold. You never see a man wear more vests in a cricket game than me,” he said.

“Out there I thought it was all right, the wicket was a lot better, the conditions were a lot nicer than the first few games. It was just a nicer batting wicket, it wasn’t spinning much, the stumps felt in play and we have come from three-day games in the first Tests so there was a little bit of a change of tack, I felt like I could bat normally, hence why I just batted and didn’t take too many risks.

“I just kept grinding away, I built partnerships that way. I just put my ego away, a few times they brought mid on and mid off up I really wanted to hit them back over their heads like I normally do, but I though I’d just keep grinding away and see how far we get.”

Khawaja says it might look as if he is relaxed at the wicket, but he says he is always thinking and adjusting.

“I just stick to my processes,” he said.

Usman Khawaja has set up the fourth Test for Australia after his magnificent century. Picture: AFP

“There’s always things going on; a change of field, what the bowlers trying to do, how I think they are trying to get me out, where I can score runs.

“All these things are going through my head all day. It’s not like I’m just batting out there. I’m doing stuff, changing my guard, going forward, going back, what’s he trying to do.

“It’s always chess out there, which you don’t always see from the outside unless you are really experienced cricket watcher or a cricketer back in the day, but there’s a lot that’s going on. Although it may seem like a really simple game-plan there were periods today, Ashwin’s a very cagey, skilful bowler, so is Jadeja.

“Even Shami bowled some really nice spells today. It was just about, when you come from those turning wickets we’ve been on before, every single time I bat I have to decide straightaway of what I think the wicket is. Do I feel like I can trust my defence a bit more? Yes. Do I feel like defence might be a dangerous shot and I need to put pressure on the bowler then I do.

“I’m always a seat-of-the-pants type of cricketer and go with the flow, try to work things out on the fly and be really fluid. Was the same today.”