Australia sweat on Green as selection for India becomes complicated

Australia are sweating on the outcome of Cameron Green's back injury as the make-up of the side for the Test series against India becomes complex depending on his availability.

Green, 25, was flown home from the UK following the third ODI against England after he complained of soreness in his lower back. He underwent a scan in the UK but is due to have more consultations in Perth this week after Australia's medical staff return home following the final game of the series in Bristol on Sunday.

The severity of the injury is still being determined but the seriousness is clear given he was flown home mid-series. Green has already had four stress fractures in his lower back during his career, all of which came before his Test debut in 2020. However, it has not been revealed whether this is a recurrence of that injury or something different.

Green has had long layoffs from bowling after each of his previous stress fractures but has, at times, been allowed to play as a batter. He missed the entire 2017-18 domestic summer and instead played grade, Under-19 and second XI cricket as a batter only. He missed another stretch of domestic cricket between January and October 2019. Following a recurrence of a stress fracture in November 2019 he was still able to play Sheffield Shield cricket as a batter only just a week later. However, he was not cleared to bowl until October 2020 in the lead up to his Test debut.

Australia's Test selection for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series was already complicated with the possibility of Steven Smith moving back down the order causing debate as to who might open given the selectors were on record saying the top six would not change barring injury.

If Green is ruled out of playing altogether, Smith could slot straight back into No.4 and a domestic opener could be elevated, with Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris and Matt Renshaw once again vying for a Test recall while Nic Maddinson could also throw his hat in the ring with a hot start to the summer.

If Green is fit to play Test cricket as a batter only, and the selectors deem him valuable enough to pick, then the debate about who bats where will rage on.

But either way, it will be highly unlikely he will be available to bowl. There has been external criticism of the need for two pace-bowling allrounders in Australia's XI with Green and Mitchell Marsh picked together in Australia's last four Test matches. But captain Pat Cummins has already stated the importance of having both in his arsenal to deploy across a tightly condensed five-Test series against India, and their presence together played a significant part in allowing Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc to play all seven Tests last summer without needing a rest.

Without Green, Marsh's overs become even more important. But there is a serious concern over Marsh's ability to handle that workload. He only bowled four overs across the eight white-ball matches he played in the UK, having not bowled in a match since a hamstring injury ended his IPL in April, and pulled up sore following those four overs at Lord's and was unable to play two days later at Bristol.

Marsh has only bowled more than nine overs in a Test once since his return to the side at Headingley last year, when he bowled 16 at the Oval including eight in each innings. He then did not bowl again in a match until the ODI World Cup despite playing 11 limited-overs internationals as a batter in the lead-in.

Since Green has returned to the Test side, Marsh only bowled two overs in each of the two Tests against West Indies, four overs in the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington and nine overs in the second in Christchurch.

If Green plays and Marsh pulls up sore during a Test match, Australia will not have any seam bowling support in their XI against India. Such a scenario would be a concern for the selectors. It may lead to the consideration of either Aaron Hardie or Beau Webster to come into the Test frame.

Hardie has elevated his case after a wonderful white-ball tour of the UK but still has to prove his case as a legitimate top-six batter for Test cricket having not played much red-ball cricket in recent times. His two Shield hundreds have come batting at No.8 and No.7 but he does have a century batting at No.4 for Australia A and scored 99 for Western Australia at No.5 against South Australia last summer. His red-ball bowling workloads are also set to be carefully monitored at the start of the home summer. He only played seven Shield matches last summer. He suffered calf tightness mid-innings in Tasmania, which saw him miss a T20I tour of New Zealand, and didn't bowl in the next two Shield games after that before only bowling 10 overs in the last round and two overs in the Shield final. He was withdrawn from a county championship stint with Surrey in the winter.

Webster is coming off the second-best season by an allrounder in the history of the Shield. He scored 938 runs at 58.62 and took 30 wickets at 29.30. Only the legendary Garry Sobers (973 runs at 74.85 and 47 wickets at 27.60) in 1963-64 has managed to have a better all-round year in Shield cricket. Webster's recent batting success has come exclusively at Nos. 6-7. But he does have a Shield century opening the batting for Tasmania and two batting at No.3. His bowling has been very effective on Shield pitches, given his ability to stand the seam up from 200cm, but there will be a question as to whether that translates on Test pitches given his pace is generally sub-130kph.

Both men are likely to get the chance to put a case forward in the early Shield rounds and for Australia A against India A in two four-day matches in late October and early November.

But if one of those players were needed in the Test XI at the expense of an injured Green, it still means Australia will either have to stick with Smith as opener or use Marnus Labuschagne or Travis Head in the role.

The debate was already complicated. Green's injury only adds another layer.