‘Stick with him’: Cameron Green’s batting woes create selection headache

Batting predominantly at No. 6, Waugh registered 10 Test fifties before finally reaching triple figures in June 1989 with a masterful 177 not out against England at Headingley.

Waugh finished his Test career with 10,927 runs and 32 centuries – only Ricky Ponting and Allan Border scored more Test runs than the New South Welshman.

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He led the Australian side through its golden era in the late 1990s and his success in the Test arena was thanks at least partly to the persistence and trust of national selectors.

West Australian all-rounder Cameron Green was also handed his maiden baggy green at a young age, making his Test debut against India last summer.

He was Australia’s third-highest run-scorer in the four-Test series, behind only Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith, but Green has struggled to replicate that form in his first Ashes series, scoring 57 runs in five innings at 14.25 this summer.

After eight matches in Australian whites, the 22-year-old’s Test average sits at 26.63. Waugh averaged 17.20 with the bat at the same stage of his Test career.

On Thursday, Green walked out onto the SCG with Australia cruising at 4/232 in the first innings. England had just taken the second new ball, and seamer Stuart Broad was finding plenty of movement with the Kookaburra on the lively Sydney deck.

Green awkwardly prodded at a handful of deliveries before England quick Mark Wood found the right-hander’s outside edge, with the ball flying through the slip cordon for a boundary.

“Green is all at sea here,” Triple M commentator Dan Ginnane said.

Broad got the breakthrough the very next over, with Green edging a full delivery to Zak Crawley at third slip.

England’s seamers have exposed the young gun’s hesitancy on the front foot throughout the series and the problem only seems to be getting worse.

“He’s destined to play a lot, but it’s a half front-footedness that gets him into trouble,” former Australian spinner Kerry O’Keeffe told Fox Cricket. “There’s a tentativeness at the start of his innings that England is looking to expose.”

Former England Test captain Michael Vaughan continued: “He’s playing too technical, too defensive. He looks like when he’s coming out to bat he’s thinking purely about that forward defence and getting everything perfect, and he’s probably forgetting to stare at the ball and look to hit it.

“When it comes to match days, I think it’s important that all you’re doing is looking at the ball and scoring and not thinking about your technical side when playing at this level.”

Although Green’s batting against England has been disappointing, he’s been a revelation with ball in hand.

After failing to take a wicket against India last summer, the tall paceman has snared seven scalps at an average of 11 against England. He has dismissed England captain Joe Root – the world’s No. 2 Test batter – on two occasions while also removing superstar all-rounder Ben Stokes in Adelaide and Melbourne.

No player from either side has taken more wickets at a better average than Green in this series.

“His bowling has been exceptional,” Vaughan said on Thursday. “You could argue he could earn his place as a bowler.”

After Usman Khawaja’s majestic century on day two of the Sydney Test, national selectors are tasked with a difficult decision ahead of the fifth match in Hobart. Khawaja replaced incumbent No. 5 Travis Head, who tested positive to Covid-19 in Melbourne last week, but the South Australian will presumably return to the starting XI for next week’s series finale.

Head was Australia’s highest run-scorer of the Ashes series before the New Year’s fixture. National selectors must therefore decide which unlucky batter misses out in Hobart – Khawaja, Green or opening batter Marcus Harris.

Australian cricket great Shane Warne called for Green to play in Hobart, arguing his bowling was too valuable an asset.

“Give him the new ball, he’s bowling that well,” he told Fox Cricket on Friday morning.

“You’ve got to take 20 wickets in a Test match, and while you’ve got Cummins and Starc batting go well at No. 8 and 9, I think you can carry Cameron Green a little bit.

“I’d be very reluctant to (drop Green), because the bowling looks great.

“I would like to back Cameron Green. We know he’s going to come good, we know what a player he is. He’s going to be a superstar.

“He’s only 22, stick with him.”

Speaking on SEN Breakfast, cricket commentator Adam Collins argued it was in the Australian selectors’ best interests to persist with Green.

“I don‘t think it’s really about the here and now, it’s about investing Test matches in him,” Collins said on Friday morning.

“As a young, precociously-talented batsman who can bowl extremely well, knowing he‘s going to be a matchwinner, this will do him the world of good.”

Originally published as ‘Stick with him’: Cameron Green’s batting woes create selection headache