IND vs AUS: “He Hasn't Been Ruled Out” – Andrew McDonald On Cameron Green's Availability For 1st Test vs India

Australia National Cricket Team head coach Andrew McDonald has made a big revelation that the young fast-bowling all-rounder Cameron Green could still feature in the 4-match Test series opener against India National Cricket Team and he hasn’t been ruled out of the opening Test in Nagpur.

Cameron Green, who is a key member of the Australian setup, has been struggling with a finger injury. He sustained a fracture to his right index finger during the second Test against South Africa at the Melbourne Cricket Ground last month.

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Meanwhile, McDonald said that they will make a decision on Green’s participation when they reach Nagpur for the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 Test.

“He hasn’t been ruled out,” McDonald said.

“We just want to make sure we set up all our players up for success and there isn’t much time left from now to the four-week check-in around his finger to the start of that test match.

“We’ll see how he goes in the build-up and make that decision when we get on the ground in India.”

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Although Green’s availability is in question, it has been confirmed that the premier left-arm quick Mitchell Starc will miss the first Test against India due to his finger injury.

Andrew McDonald has said that they are confident that Starc will be available for selection for the second Test if everything goes as per plans.

“Mitch had a bowl [Sunday], he was still strapped on that finger … on a splint – so he’s still a little while off,” Australian coach Andrew McDonald told ABC Sport.

“And nothing’s changed in terms of where he’s at – he’ll be available for the second Test match, assuming that all things go well. But we can’t accelerate that with the nature of the injury.

“To mitigate against any of that risk, he still has to stay in the splint but for those who were down at training today, it didn’t look too dissimilar different to what he usually produces but just with the splint on. He obviously can’t bowl with that in the game.”

Spinners carry a lot of the workload when we go to India – Andrew McDonald

Australia National Cricket Team have included four spin bowlers – Nathan Lyon Todd Murphy, Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson – in the squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 series in India.

Meanwhile, Andrew McDonald said that he is satisfied with the progress made by the spinners at a recent spin-bowlers training camp.

“It’s a great opportunity to get them all together and implement some of those tactical nuances that we’re going to go through in India, drip-feeding the information around what to expect, how we want to go about bowling to certain individuals and that information has been tabled and we feel they have the space to make that happen,” McDonald said. 

“But most importantly, the physical demands on the spinners will be at a high level as well. We normally talk about the fast bowlers but the spinners carry a lot of the workload when we go to India so that will be a challenge for them.”

Andrew McDonald further talked about the possible spin-bowling partner of Nathan Lyon in the upcoming 4-match Test series.

“Left-arm orthodox is usually very successful on the subcontinent. It gives you a second spinner who takes the ball in a different direction to Nathan and generally speaking he (Agar) is accurate, he can land it where he wants to most of the time,” he said. 

“Todd Murphy spins the ball the same way as Nathan Lyon, so that would be something that hasn’t been done before, picking two frontline off-spinners and taking into account you also have Travis Head, but he wouldn’t be out of place at that level.

“Mitchell Swepson, he’s been there and partnered up with Nathan Lyon on the last two subcontinent tours and did a fair job within those two series in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

“We feel like when we get on that plane we’ll have great options for the captain and the selectors to work through and put on the park.”

Also Read: IND vs AUS: Virat Kohli Is The Best Test Batter; He Could Be Biggest Fear Once Again – Marcus Stoinis Ahead Of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023

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