Cameron Green’s progress to play as an allrounder in the first Ashes Test remains on track despite being withdrawn from Australia’s ODI series against India with side soreness.
National selector George Bailey confirmed in Perth on Saturday the decision to pull Green out of the three-match series was “conservative” and done to ensure he has enough time to get his body right for the first Test against England on November 21.
Such is the precaution Australia’s hierarchy are taking with their star allrounder that Bailey said the injury, diagnosed as “low grade side soreness”, might only set Green’s progress back 24 hours with his plan still to bowl in WA’s round three (against South Australia) and four (against Queensland) Sheffield Shield matches.
Both of those fixtures are home games at the WACA Ground and will be crucial in building up the 26-year-old’s bowling workloads ahead of next month’s Ashes opener, also in Perth.
Bailey said Green wouldn’t have bowled in the first two ODIs against India in Perth (tomorrow) and Adelaide (Thursday) with his plan to play as a specialist batter before sitting out the third match in Sydney to switch his focus back to red-ball cricket.
That simplified the decision to rule him out of the ODI series once he experienced discomfort in his side at training earlier this week, with the right-hander playing as a fully-fledged allrounder crucial to the Test side’s plans against England.
“We’ve put so much time and energy into building out the plan for him to be available for the first Test as an allrounder,” Bailey said.
“So for the sake of him only going to play the first two one-dayers anyway, and with the way he swings the cricket bat in white-ball cricket, it just (helped us make) the decision to approach this more conservatively.
“But I don’t think it’s a setback in terms of it not changing his Shield preparation or his availability for what we expect to come.
“He’ll keep his plan of playing Shield (round) three and four … and that should provide pretty good time that he’ll be in a good place to be ready to bowl (in the first Test).”
Green bowled his first overs in a competitive match since his back operation a year ago during WA’s round one Shield loss to NSW last week, taking a wicket with his second ball in his 1-13 from four overs.
The right-hander didn’t bowl in the second innings as part of a gradual build-up to avoid bowling on consecutive days, with the match over in three days as WA fell to NSW by 74 runs. That restriction is set to be eased by their round four clash from November 11-14 to allow Green to bowl unrestricted in first Test beginning seven days later.
Marnus Labuschagne, fresh off his fourth century of the domestic season, will join the ODI squad in Perth on Saturday night as Green’s replacement following Queensland’s Sheffield Shield win over South Australia.
Bailey was in Adelaide earlier this week to see Labuschagne’s 159 in the first innings against SA, and he was also on deck in Brisbane during the Queensland captain’s 160 against Tasmania in round one of the Shield season.
“I’ve seen lots of Marnus over the last couple of weeks and most of it’s been at a distance to the middle of the wicket, so his form has been really pleasing,” Australia’s men’s selection chair said.
“I thought out of everything that he’s played, I really liked the innings in Adelaide. It’s a nice bowling attack South Australia have got so … I liked the intent, I liked the movement, and I liked the way he built the partnerships.
“We know he’s a quality player.
Marnus strengthens Test case with fourth ton of summer
“We know there’s a hell of a lot of class there – (he has) 11 Test centuries and a Test average of (46.19) – so to see him putting the runs up that he has has been really pleasing and long may it continue.”
The 31-year-old is in the box seat to return to the Test side after being left out of the West Indies series.
No decision has been made on whether Green remains at first-drop once he returns to bowling in Test cricket, or where Labuschagne would fit in if recalled for the Ashes, but Bailey believes the latter can open the batting if required, like he did in the World Test Championship final in June prior to being dropped.
“He has done it in the past,” Bailey said.
“His skill set, (like) most players that bat in the top three around the country, that’s reasonably interchangeable.
“I know it is different because you’re out there at the start, but you could be out there the second ball as well (when batting at No.3).”
Like Green, Steve Smith is set to play in NSW’s next two Shield games having recently returned to Sydney from his home in New York to ramp up his preparations for the Test summer.
Bailey confirmed Smith would again stand-in as Test captain should Pat Cummins miss any of the series against England in his recovery from lumbar back stress.
“That’s been the same since Pat started; he’s missed six Tests across the journey and Steve’s deputised for him each time and that won’t change,” he said.
Bailey conceded it was “getting tight” for Cummins to be able to suit up in the first Test but he remained confident the Australian skipper could still play a major part in the series.
Head, Axar all smiles ahead of bumper ODI series
Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, who are part of the ODI squad to face India, are also planning to play for NSW against Victoria at the SCG from November 10-13.
Scott Boland is also expected to suit up for the Vics in that match after being rested in round three, while Travis Head is also a chance to play for South Australia against Tasmania in round four.
“Particularly, around the bowlers, there’s a strong plan to get a lot of them through Shield round four,” Bailey said.
“It’s a delicate balancing act of trying to give this (ODI and five-match T20) series respect and playing India is always a massive series.
“The T20 series is big because it’s our last long-term hit before we’ve got to nail down a World Cup squad, so there’s some final moving pieces there that we want to keep working on.”
Hazlewood and Head have been picked for the first two T20Is against India, with selectors to have one eye on the Ashes when they name the squad for the rest of the series at a later date.
Australia v India ODIs 2025
Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Owen, Josh Philippe, Matthew Renshaw, Matthew Short, Mitchell Starc. Game two onwards: Adam Zampa, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis
India squad: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal
October 19: First ODI v India, Perth Stadium, Perth, 2:30pm AEDT
October 23: Second ODI v India, Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, 2:30pm AEDT
October 25: Third ODI v India, SCG, Sydney, 2:30pm AEDT
All matches live via Kayo Sports and Foxtel