Cameron Green, the 21-year-old all-rounder from Western Australia, is set to debut for Australia at the Adelaide Oval. His anticipated first appearance has generated great expectation. Here’s a profile on him.
Highlighted Career
In first-class cricket, Green has demonstrated outstanding performance. He has five centuries in 21 matches, including a career-high of 197 earlier this season against New South Wales. His batting average is 55.04. A match against Queensland at the Gabba in November 2019, where he scored 87 and 121 not out batting in positions 8 and 9, evidenced his potential with the bat. That was also the last match in which he bowled for a year.
With the ball, he averages 21.72 with 33 wickets, including 5 for 24 in his first-class debut against Tasmania, a team against which he also achieved his best figures of 6 for 30 in 2018. Although his career in white-ball cricket is not as prominent, he made his ODI debut a couple of weeks ago, this in a handful of matches: nine in both List A and T20. It is with the red (and pink) ball that he is exciting everyone at the moment.
Great Expectations
Greg Chappell has called him the “best since Ricky Ponting” in recent interviews.
“For me, Cameron Green is the next superstar of Australian cricket. He is a genuine prospect with the bat and ball, but I think his future is as a batsman who can offer some quality overs. Cameron is a batsman with uncommon talent. At 6 feet 7 inches, he could become something very special. I would have him bat at number 6 to start, but I think number 4 is his long-term position. The sooner he plays at this level, the sooner he will become the player he should be.”
The recent injury
A worrying moment was when he received a blow to the head from a Jasprit Bumrah drive at the SCG. He had to leave the field and was substituted for concussion. Fortunately, the blow did not cause major damage and it seems that he will be able to pass all Cricket Australia protocols to be able to debut.
The dream off-roader?
Perhaps, but with caution. This has nothing to do with talent, but with release restrictions due to a stress fracture in his back that he suffered last year. He has worked on his action with WA bowling coach Matt Mason and has so far been limited to four-over spells. This season he has not bowled more than eight overs in a day in match conditions. However, he has shown the ability to take wickets: he claimed two in the second innings against the Indians at Drummoyne Oval and produced a beauty to dismiss Shubman Gill before his injury at the SCG.
Tim Paine also suggested that the bowling restrictions will be relaxed. “I think he’ll bowl a little bit more than that, once you’re selected in a Test match, you’re ready to play. That being said, we don’t expect him to bowl a huge amount of overs with the attack we’ve got.”
An unexpected debut?
In a way, yes. A few weeks ago it seemed unlikely that he would be in the starting eleven at the beginning of the series, despite having been named in the expanded squad. The preferred route was for Australia to maintain its traditional balance of six batsmen, a wicketkeeper and four bowlers. However, recently the plans have been altered by the injuries of Warner and Pucovksi, which has led Australia to reorganize the batting order (at least for one test) and that has created the opening in the number 6 position. This is not to say that Green does not deserve it. In his current form, it could easily be said that he is among Australia’s top six batsmen, and Justin Langer and national selector Trevor Hohns have said that he is worthy of being selected for his batting alone.
