Cameron Green is set to lose his World Cup spot to Marcus Stoinis amid fears the Australian superstar is mentally and physically exhausted.
An underwhelming Ashes series which ended in him being dropped for the last Test has now filtered into a sluggish lead-in to the World Cup campaign in India where he has looked out of sorts through the warm-up games.
There are concerns inside Australian cricket circles that the prodigiously talented 24-year-old and future of the team is fried from essentially being on the road for eight and a half months this year.
Green is set to be replaced by Stoinis in Australia’s line-up to face South Africa in the second World Cup match in Lucknow on Thursday and the young all-rounder is now facing the challenge of having to rejuvenate himself and his game from outside the XI.
Red flags were first raised for this exact scenario at the start of the year when Green signed his stunning $3.15 million IPL deal with the Mumbai Indians.
Cricket Australia were powerless to stop him taking such an irresistible and life-altering offer, and were hoping the invaluable experience that comes in the world’s premier T20 league would outweigh the downside of not giving his young mind and body a chance to rest in what was going to be the biggest year of his career.
The fact Australia was in the space of a few months to contest the three most prized trophies in cricket – a Test tour of India, the Ashes and the ODI World Cup – was always going to push their multi-format starts to the limit.
But those fears were only exacerbated when it came to their prized asset Green, especially with the rigours of his first ever IPL thrown on top, plus his workload management as a fast bowler and the fact he is a young man away from his family and partner.
A concussion suffered in South Africa last month also didn’t help him find rhythm with his World Cup preparations.
Green missed two Tests in India and two in England, but he has been part of the squad throughout and ridden the emotional roller coaster of those heavy-duty tours.
Selectors have done their best to give Green a chop out where possible – he didn’t play the T20s in South Africa and he won’t be part of the T20 squad taking on India after this World Cup.
Green has also recognised the heavy load he has had this year and reports suggest he won’t play in the Big Bash League this year despite huge interest from the Perth Scorchers and even an audacious play for his signature from the Brisbane Heat.
However, it’s hard to properly manage a player who has had such a meteoric rise.
When in form – Green is in Australia’s best XI for all three formats and he is a key to their success.
The problem is he’s not in form and Australia urgently needs to find the right balance to help the young star realise his enormous potential.
Mitchell Marsh is the incumbent all-rounder in the Test team after his masterful injection into the Ashes, but everyone knows Green is the future and the priority will be getting him back into the Australian teams he promises to dominate.
FLOWER POWER FUELING AUSSIES
— Daniel Cherny
Australia was calling on the local knowledge of cricket great Andy Flower as it braces for a vastly different wicket in Lucknow to the one it confronted at Chennai on Sunday.
Former Zimbabwe captain and England coach Flower has been spending time working with the Aussies on and off in recent months, consulting ahead of the World Test Championship final and during the Ashes.
He is back with the side for a period during the World Cup, and was on the field in a meeting with captain Pat Cummins, coach Andrew McDonald and selection chair George Bailey, 24 hours out from Australia’s match against South Africa at the Ekana Stadium.
Flower knows this venue better than most. He coached the Indian Premier League’s Lucknow Super Giants across the past two seasons before being replaced by ex-Australian coach Justin Langer.
Australia struggled on a slow turner at Chepauk in its six-wicket loss to India on Sunday, but Cummins said on Wednesday that the pitch at Lucknow – which hosts Australia’s next two matches against the Proteas and South Africa – appeared a different proposition.
“It’s a beautiful stadium. I thought I had been here but I don’t think I have but (it’s a) beautiful ground. The wicket looks really good. I haven’t had a look at it today. But last night looked really good. Really even so maybe a bit of pace and bounce. Yeah, so we’ll see how it is tomorrow,” Cummins said.
“When it’s a good wicket, which that looks like, most of the games have been 300 plus.”
While India’s spinners ran through the Aussies on Sunday afternoon, Australia’s tweaker twins Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell did not have anywhere near the same success under lights, struggling to control the ball because of dew.
It called into question Cummins’ decision to bat first on Sunday, but he said the India experience would not necessarily sway the strategy this time around.
“I think it’s different at every venue. So you know here it’s whatever a few thousand kilometers away from Chennai it’s it’s a bit different,” Cummins said.
“Probably have another look tonight, see if there’s dew but it doesn’t seem like there’s as much dew at this ground. But yeah, I don’t really have a strong opinion on the dew in one-day cricket. Some games the ball gets heavy and it’s actually better to bowl at night and other games it gets so slippery that it’s hard to grip onto so it’s kind of a bit different to T20.”
Cummins reiterated that all-rounder Marcus Stoinis, who also plays in the IPL for Lucknow, was available for the match after missing the defeat to India following a hamstring complaint. But Cummins said the Aussies would confirm their XI at the toss.