All-rounder Cameron Green is available for selection for the third and final Test of the ongoing three-match series between Australia and South Africa, but he will not be able to bowl. The series decider between the two finalists of the 2025 World Test Championship (WTC) is scheduled to start on Tuesday (October 27) at Newlands in Cape Town.
Green, who missed the first two Tests against South Africa due to injury, batted in the nets on Saturday and stated that he is good to go for the series decider.
“I’m all good to go,” Green was quoted as saying by Cricinfo. “Pretty surprised with how quick it’s (abdominal injury) actually healed or how functional I feel only a few weeks after.”
Green is all but certain to play the series decider for the Baggy
Greens, but it will be interesting to see his batting position. In the first two Tests against the Proteas, Nic Maddinson opened the innings for Australia but failed to deliver. Apart from him, Marnus Labuschagne and Beau Webster also struggled in the first two Tests. Their places in the playing XI are also under scrutiny.
Green, who scored a century for Australia in the first Test of the home series against Bangladesh in August, usually bats in the lower middle order but has stated that he prefers to bat at No. 4 or 5 in the five-day format of the game.
“I think I’ve had a lot of experience up and down the order,” Green said. “I think I’m well suited at four and five, but obviously we’ve had some pretty incredible cricketers bat in those positions. So I’m very happy to move up and down the order depending on what the team wants.”
“Certainly (the Tests) up in Mackay and Darwin were huge positives in kind of how I wanted to play the game,” he said. “There are probably learnings I took from the last Shield game I played, (in) kind of how I wanted to play and it felt pretty natural to me,” he added.
In the third Test against South Africa, Green will face the likes of Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada, who played a big role in South Africa’s win at St George’s Park. Green praised the duo, stating that they are at the very top of their game.
“They’re obviously at the very top of their game at the moment,” he said. “They’re probably [in] the top few bowlers in the world. You always love those challenges. You want to step up against those guys and show what you can do.”
