Australia all-rounder Cameron Green might come up short on his bowling fitness as he eyes to be match-ready for the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar trophy against hosts India. Green has been training with the team in Sydney ahead of the Test match in Nagpur to regain match fitness to force his way into the playing eleven for the first Test and will be hoping to hear good news from the surgeon for his broken finger which he sustained against South Africa during the Melbourne Test last month.
Early in his professional career, Green has shown himself to be a cricketer who relishes the tempo of consistently playing long-form. He has improved over the course of the summer in both the Test matches this season and the Ashes from a year ago. In Melbourne, he took five wickets against South Africa before fracturing his finger. The all-rounder came in to bat and managed to make a crucial unbeaten fifty, playing with the injured finger.
“Where he’s positioned at the moment, his biggest challenge is bowling. There is a lack of loading there, and one of the key reasons around us getting into this camp early is to make sure that we’re ready to go for the rigours of what the bowling unit [is] going to encompass.
Building confidence is the main thing, setting him up to succeed in that first Test match, having enough time, that will be the critical question,” Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said as quoted by ESPN. Green would be regarded as a specialist batter, though, if his bowling does not quite measure up. Last year, he demonstrated his aptitude for catching up quickly on the subcontinent with key halfcenturies in Lahore and, in Galle, where he won Player of the Match on a tricky surface.