Cameron Green is in contention to become Travis Head’s opening partner this summer, as Australia’s selectors ponder how to keep both Green and Beau Webster in the Test team.
Head coach Andrew McDonald has floated the vacancy at the top of the batting order, created in part by Usman Khawaja’s retirement at the end of last summer’s Ashes series, when discussing the red-ball future for Green, who endured an underwhelming summer before trekking to India for the IPL.
Jake Weatherald partnered Head for the majority of the 4-1 series victory over England without making the spot his own.
While Green has shown glimpses of his best over the past 12 months, he has not yet assumed the dominant role in the Australian side that many thought was likely, particularly after a pair of outstanding hundreds in India in 2023 and New Zealand the following year.
After Khawaja and David Warner formed a productive opening partnership between 2022 and 2024, the top of the order has been a trouble spot for Australia.
Steve Smith tried the role unsuccessfully before returning to No.4, then Nathan McSweeney was trialled then dropped, before Sam Konstas shone brightly but all too briefly. Marnus Labuschagne opened in the Test championship final last year, then Weatherald was subbed in for the Ashes without putting the spot beyond doubt.
“Usman retired, so there is a gap that presents at the top,” McDonald told this masthead. “We played an eight-batter team if you want to call it that, with Beau Webster doing the spin duties. So there’s opportunities within our team.
“Is [Green] the person? We’ve got a long time to understand what our team looks like, then hopefully we hit the ground running for those possible 21 Test matches.
“The red-ball conversation happens further down the track. We’ve got Cam starting in early July in Brisbane, we’ll start to build that out. He didn’t have the summer he would’ve liked last year.”
The other option open to selectors is to shift Head, either to No.3 or back to his former spot at No.5, depending on whether they think his Ashes pyrotechnics are viable for the long term.
Now in Islamabad for Australia’s looming ODI series that starts in Lahore on Saturday night, Green remains a central plank in Australia’s plans across formats, and McDonald said there would also likely be some batting order shuffling for the tall 26-year-old in the matches against Pakistan and Bangladesh.
“There is an element of, OK, where do we want to position people?” McDonald said.
“Glenn Maxwell’s not in the team, do we need some power down in the finishing role? Is Cameron a four? … he has been up and down the order, so there’s more questions than answers at the moment, but we’ll try a few things.
“His impact with bat, ball and then in the field balances out our team. While at times he doesn’t perform at a level that the external expect, you’ve got to understand the sum of all parts and what he does in terms of balancing our team and making others better.
“Sometimes we critique the individual’s performance, and we don’t look at the overall function of the team. So he’s incredibly important with that all-round skill set in white-ball [cricket].”
Green had a run-in with the media in a Sheffield Shield game before he flew to the IPL to play for Kolkata Knight Riders, and McDonald said he had checked in regularly with the all-rounder to see how he was travelling.
“It’s good to see him get a few runs, and I’ve spoken to him over there,” McDonald said. “It’s an incredibly intense environment over in the IPL, so our biggest challenge for him will be once he’s finished in the IPL, how we prepare him for that Pakistan series, and then really how he fits into that team.”
McDonald, meanwhile, is out of contract in the back half of 2027. Cricket Australia recently locked in women’s head coach Shelley Nitschke for another three years to 2029, and conversations around the leadership of the men’s team will soon follow.
“[It’s] not something that’s jumped into my head,” McDonald said of his contract situation.
“We’re excited by what we’ve got coming up, [with] some great challenges. We’re planning around that and working back through all those series, so I haven’t thought of anything beyond that or looked at the schedule. It’s more about preparation for the players and what that all looks like.”
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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via X.