Green may focus on red ball cricket before India challenge

MELBOURNE: All-rounder Cameron Green may be spared white ball duties for Australia to focus on his red ball game ahead of the Test series against India in the next home summer, coach Andrew McDonald said.

Green played Sheffield Shield cricket with Western Australia in the run-up to the ongoing New Zealand Test series and said the red ball preparation had helped set him up for his match-winning 174 not out in the Wellington opener.

McDonald said Green may be given a similar lead-in to the five-Test series against India and be rested from scheduled ODIs and T20Is against Pakistan that start the home summer. “I’d like to probably err on the side of preparing him through red ball. We know how good a white-ball player he is so you put a priority on what it looks like next summer,” McDonald told reporters.

“The white-ball cricket’s important, but that test summer’s important, so I think with the results he’s had (at Wellington) he’ll probably come to us and say, ‘Can you give us a couple of Shield games before the first Test against India?’”

Australia beat the Black Caps by 172 runs at the Basin Reserve, the margin of victory almost matching Green’s first innings knock, which was the second hundred of his Test career.