Why Australia will stick with Cameron Green … for now

If the ground staff at the MCG continue to produce batting surfaces that yield 20 wickets a day then the national discourse about team balance becomes very bland.

Nathan Lyon, or any other spinner, will never play a Test match in East Melbourne again. The statue of Shane Warne whirring away in the direction of St Kilda beach on the members’ forecourt will be the solitary reminder of past spinning deeds inside the great stadium. Warnie wouldn’t even get a chance to turn in his home graveyard.

When explaining the omission of off spinner Todd Murphy in this match, Steve Smith said Lyon would not have been selected for Boxing Day even if he had been fit, due to the 10mm of green grass sitting on top of the Merri Creek clay strip. The Test would be punctuated and underlined with fast bowlers. Is it really Test cricket if no spinner plays?

Cricket XIs are built around a fundamental three-tier structure of batsmen to make runs, bowlers to take wickets and a wicketkeeper to catch and stump. Teams do not consist of 11 bats or 11 bowlers. Some sub-continental Tests don’t rely on seam bowlers at all, and recent Tests in Australia haven’t required spinners, but those two styles are generally at either extreme of the spectrum.

A deviation from orthodox Test play is as good as a holiday. Players are selected for specific skill sets: opening the batting requires quick reactions, fast twitch muscle fibres, keen eyesight, powers of concentration over long periods and consistent techniques (before Bazball, that is).

Fast bowlers are constructed upon muscle power, physical resilience, high pain thresholds and skill under fatigue. Hybrid players fill the quota – the all-rounders have a slice of everything. Batsmen who bowl a bit, bowlers who bat a bit and the rare and invaluable “genuine all-rounder” who could bat in the first six or be a frontline bowler and maybe field in the cordon. Teams with genuine all-rounders are a step ahead before the toss.

Sometimes teams just get lucky with the batting ability of their bowlers, or a batsman who can roll out some decent overs. Travis Head’s spin is useful over short spells, while Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Michael Neser are very useful lower-order batsmen. Scott Boland can now open the batting. It all adds up.

Steve Waugh held his spot despite a run struggle in the first three years of his Test career because he could bowl incisively; not just to contain runs but pick up big scalps. When the lean spell with the bat was broken, he became one of the most prolific run scorers in Test history. It also helped that he could catch at slip and perform indoor cricket magic tricks in the infield. His contribution was an all-round one in every sense, and it was definitive. He eventually became a specialist batsman when the body ached but the reflexes remained.

When teams were picked with four specialist bowlers, any overs contributed by the top six were precious – better still if they were quality overs. Certainly, teams through the 1980s were picked with four pacemen with no thought given to the necessity of an all-rounder. As more one-day internationals were played, the likes of Simon O’Donnell and Trevor Chappell, with all-round skills who fleetingly crossed the barrier into Test cricket, came into their own.

Australia have been fortunate with the batting prowess of their wicketkeepers in recent decades, from Ian Healy to Brad Haddin, especially Adam Gilchrist and now Alex Carey being elevated into the top six.

The salient point with Carey’s elevation is not so much his form, which has been outstanding, but about the man who now follows him in – Cameron Green.

The West Australian has been on the greasy pole this summer. Proposed as a No.3 amid the chaos of Perth, when Usman Khawaja was unavailable, he appeared at six. Green has been considered a member of the genuine all-rounders club since his arrival on the first-class scene because he could bowl at 140 kph and make hundreds. Fair enough.

Selectors need a fit and in-form Green, but his lanky body has proven unreliable – which can happen when you try to bowl fast. His batting has also lost a sheen of consistency. He looks uncertain at the crease, unsure whether to attack or drop anchor. Getting shuffled up and down the order can bring a fog to the expectations of each role and the game situation.

Green’s back-away dismissal in Brisbane will forever feature on his lowlights reel. After 36 Tests, he has taken 38 wickets at 37 and averages 33 with the bat – not quite the territory of a genuine all-rounder, but skirting around the boundary fence. Green’s wingspan and bucket hands in the gully add the third element that keeps him in the team, for now.

Green is the keystone to building a team which has a balance of pace and spin – unlike the XI at the MCG – but he needs to lift.

The selectors will stick with him a little longer, cross their fingers and behove the deities of Keith Miller, Alan Davidson, Richie Benaud, Shane Watson, Mark Waugh and Doug Walters, because the balance of the modern Test team demands a fifth bowler even though matches rarely go the distance.

Australia fielded five seam bowlers in the MCG Test, Green included, which feels like overkill. But when you leave a spinner out, the dice has been rolled – unlike the pitch.

England have the luxury of a genuine, world-class all-rounder in Ben Stokes. They don’t play a specialist spinner but a batsman in Will Jacks who bowls something that could just about be described as “off spin”. It allows them to play eight batsmen (which is about three short). England have been so worried about the legitimacy of their batting philosophy that they refuse to pick a frontline spinner because it weakens the batting.

Australia’s selectors would like to build the next generation around the genuine all-round abilities of Green and Carey.

This Australian squad has served the nation well, but the band is starting to break up under the ravages of age. Carey is a future captain and Green is the keystone to building a team which has a balance of pace and spin – unlike the XI at the MCG – but he needs to lift.

Maybe giving him a concrete batting number would clear the mind and ensure consistency. Otherwise, the other all-rounder in the squad, Beau Webster, will be filling his shoes.

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