Cameron Green will take on his biggest workload with the ball since undergoing back surgery more than a year ago, with the allrounder’s bowling capability now the single biggest variable that will dictate the make-up of Australia’s first Ashes Test side.
Selection boss George Bailey insisted the 15-player squad revealed today has not yet been whittled down to a playing XI as the bulk of that group prepares to play in next week’s Sheffield Shield round.
The answers to lingering questions over Green – will he be able to bowl in Perth? If so, how many overs? And should his bowling have a bearing on whether he bats three or six? – will likely dictate where Marnus Labuschagne bats and which of Jake Weatherald or Beau Webster plays.
Green returned to international cricket as a batter earlier this year, but has bowled just four match overs (in a Shield match last month) since undergoing radical spinal surgery in October last year. He was slated to send down his first overs in international cricket in the BKT Tyres ODI series against India last month before a minor side complaint set him back.
The 26-year-old has continued to build up his bowling workloads in practice and Bailey suggested he could bowl as many as 20 overs against the Labuschagne-led Bulls next week.
Sheffield Shield round four
NSW v Victoria: November 10-13, Sydney Cricket Ground, 10:30am AEDT
Tasmania v South Australia: November 10-13, Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 10:30am AEDT
Western Australia v Queensland: November 11-14, WACA Ground, Perth, 1:30pm AEDT
Given Green has only ever bowled more than that amount four times in his 32 Tests, Bailey said captain Steve Smith would be unlikely to lean on the tall right-armer for any more than that in the first Test against England.
“The exact number in this game, I think it’s 15 to 20 (overs),” Bailey said of Green’s expected bowling workload for WA against Queensland. “I imagine he’ll hit that and that’s pretty close to what you need from your allrounder.
“There’s been a long build for Cam. It’s been a slow and steady and very deliberate build up, so confident that that’ll continue.
“To rush a step at the last moment doesn’t make much sense.
“Your allrounder doesn’t need to be in a position to bowl 30 or 40 overs hopefully – certainly historically for us over the last little bit (they haven’t). I think he’ll be really well placed.”
Bailey details selectors’ thinking behind Ashes squad
Bailey added that Green bowling at full tilt “is a nice piece of the puzzle” but if his Test bowling comeback “ends up being another Test, that’s okay”.
The selector also said incumbent allrounder Webster could play alongside Green like the pair did in winter Tests against South Africa and West Indies when Green was not bowling.
But Bailey insisted that another shift in batting position (Green has batted at three, four and six, while also was in the mix to open the batting during the 2023-24 summer) would not be unsettling for him.
“He’s batted in a number of positions now,” said Bailey. “Six has been one of those. He’s got a capability where that can work in a number of positions. He’s a very good player.”
Australia playing both their allrounders would leave room for only one of Weatherald or Labuschagne, with the latter tipped to be in front having scored five centuries in domestic cricket already this season.
If Weatherald got the nod, Labuschagne (who opened in the World Test Championship final earlier this year) could return to his preferred No.3 spot with one of Green and Webster to take the No.6 berth.
“Marn’s got a game that could sit anywhere. It could be three. I think if you can bat in the top three, you’ve probably got a skill set that’s capable of opening the batting,” said Bailey.
“A lot of those things will be determined by what are the resources you need, and the makeup of those around you, and is it complementary?
“People clearly have spots where they’ve batted the majority of their career and they will have different records when they do change position. But he can bat three, he could open. He’s got the skillset for both. He’s looking pretty good of late.
“As soon as he was left out of that (team to play) West Indies, his first question was, ‘well, how many runs do you need for me to come back?’
“There was a very clear message that the runs would be a byproduct of some of the other things that we wanted to see. Part of that was a method and a way of batting, and some technical things that we wanted to see.
“We were confident that if that happened, the runs take care of themselves. And that’s been the case. From pretty early on in the season, it was evident that he’d made some nice adjustments and was in a good place.”
Green will be joined in WA’s Shield team by Josh Inglis, who along with Queensland’s Xavier Bartlett will turn out in that WACA Ground contest beginning Tuesday after the final T20I against India in Brisbane. A host of other T20I squad members, Tasmania’s Matthew Kuhnemann and Mitchell Owen among them, are also in line to make Shield returns.
Khawaja is the sole absentee among the names read out by Bailey on the Gold Coast today who will not play in the Shield next week as he manages a minor adductor strain. Australia insist Khawaja, who will turn 39 next month, is in no doubt for Perth’s series opener.
Mitch Marsh, another in the mix to play in the Ashes this summer, has been flagged for a return to Shield ranks for rounds five and six. Bailey also mentioned Cricket Australia XI, Australia A and Prime Minister’s XI games against England as possible long-form matches Marsh could play over the coming weeks.
Tour matches during Ashes series
November 21-25: CA XI v England Lions, Lilac Hill, Perth
November 29-30: Prime Minister’s XI v England, Manuka Oval, Canberra (D/N)
December 5-8: Australia A v England Lions, AB Field, Brisbane
Bailey compared the aggressive approach of Weatherald to that of Marsh, the T20I captain who has not played a first-class match since being dropped from the Test team for Webster in January.
“We’ve had lots of conversations around it,” Bailey said of Marsh’s red-ball prospects.
“The permutation is around where, when and why we might look to that (recalling Marsh).
Weatherald’s strong start to season continues with blazing 94
“Landing on Jake, it’s almost the method that I think everyone is sort of attracted to around Mitch – being able to take the game on and combat if England do hit us with fast bowlers and go short, or whatever that might look like.
“I think Jake’s a pretty good sort of hybrid of that traditional opener but is also reasonably aggressive. It’ll look different to Mitch but … I think he’s got a game that could provide an injection, a different look at how you might attack it.
“But (Marsh is) not the path we’re going down to start the series.”
2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men’s Ashes
First Test: November 21-25, Perth Stadium, 1.30pm AEDT
Second Test: December 4-8, The Gabba, Brisbane (D/N), 3.30pm AEDT
Third Test: December 17-21: Adelaide Oval, 11am AEDT
Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT
Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT
Australia squad: (First Test only): Steve Smith (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster
England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue, Mark Wood
