{"id":388160,"date":"2026-01-03T03:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T03:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388160\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T03:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T03:27:07","slug":"australia-coy-about-cameron-greens-role-in-final-ashes-test-against-england-at-scg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388160\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia coy about Cameron Green’s role in final Ashes Test against England at SCG"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Smith has launched an impassioned defence of the out-of-form Cameron Green, but cannot guarantee the all-rounder’s place in Australia’s XI for the final Ashes Test.<\/p>\n

Smith, Australia’s stand-in captain, insisted all options were on the selection table for the fifth Test against England at the SCG, which begins on Sunday.<\/p>\n

These options include using both all-rounders, Green and Beau Webster, and leaving out a spinner for the third time in four Tests.<\/p>\n

“We’ll figure [the team] out once we see the surface and see which way we want to go about it,” Smith said.<\/p>\n

With the Ashes urn already retained, World Test Championship points and the chance to send retiring Usman Khawaja out a winner appear the hosts’ most significant motivations.<\/p>\n

Khawaja did it all his own way and retires as an Australian great<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia had never seen a cricketer like Usman Khawaja and, thanks to his work on and off the field, he’ll be followed by plenty more.<\/p>\n

But pressure is mounting on 26-year-old Green, the youngest member of the team.<\/p>\n

A solid contributor with the ball this Ashes series, Green has shifted around the batting order with an average of 18.7 runs and one score above 24 from six innings.<\/p>\n

Even that high score \u2014 45 under lights in Brisbane \u2014 was overshadowed by an audacious premeditated shot that left his stumps exposed and he was skittled by Brydon Carse.<\/p>\n

Smith, who endured a lean start to the last home summer, felt for Green.<\/p>\n

“We’ve played on some hard surfaces for batting,” Smith said.<\/p>\n

Steve Waugh’s last-ball century is still the perfect day<\/a><\/p>\n

With one ball remaining on day two of the fifth Ashes Test in 2003, Steve Waugh stared down a century and his own cricketing mortality before securing one of the most famous centuries of his storied career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen two two-day games. It’s not easy, but he’s got himself in on a few occasions and probably not gone on with it.<\/p>\n

“That’s probably the disappointing part about it \u2014 starting your innings is actually the hardest thing. He’s doing that pretty well and just finding a way to get out.<\/p>\n

“He’s batted in different spots, which also can’t be easy, as well, when you’re trying to nail down one sort of role.”<\/p>\n

Spinner Todd Murphy’s hopes of a first home Test are also up in the air after he was overlooked for the seaming MCG deck.<\/p>\n

Murphy last played on the Test tour of Sri Lanka in early 2025 and was brought into the Ashes squad as cover for injured veteran Nathan Lyon.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Smith has launched an impassioned defence of the out-of-form Cameron Green, but cannot guarantee the all-rounder’s place…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13285,64,63,60167,18762,740,1208,37779,43290,85,35235,231,89809,70541],"class_list":["post-388160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ashes","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beau-webster","tag-cameron-green","tag-cricket","tag-england","tag-fifth-test","tag-scg","tag-sports","tag-steve-smith","tag-test","tag-todd-murphy","tag-usman-khawaja"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}