‘Got hit there, two balls later...’: Green’s painful reveal as major call made on third Test selection

Cameron Green has received medical clearance to resume his Test career ahead of Tuesday’s series-decider against the Proteas after recovering from a bizarre injury he attributed to the lowest of blows.

The Western Australian doubts it is a coincidence that he was struck in the groin two balls before tearing an abdominal muscle when hit in the stomach by Corbin Bosch twice in an over in a one-day international late last month.

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In a strange sequence at Potchefstroom, the 27-year-old smashed a six in between the two balls where he was struck by Bosch, but the second blow from the Protea was significant enough to rule Green out of the first two Tests of the prized series.

“It was really bizarre. I think there’s definitely a pretty clear link between getting hit and then doing the injury. I think it’s too much of a coincidence for them not to be related,” Green said on Saturday in the Western Cape city.

“So basically, yeah, I got hit where you don’t want to get hit, and then two balls later, I went to play a shot just behind the wicket.

“Obviously, I had to lengthen my muscle, and yeah, I think my muscle was pretty keen to not move at that stage after I got hit. So yeah, I think the stretching of the muscle, I think, I just had a tear through the ab, the whole ab.”

The Perth resident said he was not initially sure whether or not he would feature at all in this series given the mysterious nature of the injury, with Cricket Australia’s medicos telling him it was a rare problem.

“My immediate thoughts were talking to the medical staff and seeing what they thought, how long the timeline would be, (because) it’s quite a unique injury,” he said.

“There’s not many people that have done the injury but then tried to play a few weeks later, so they didn’t have much to go off.

“So I just stayed around the group until I’d heard further, depending on how it was tracking, and it kind of was tracking really well for the last game. So we just kept staying on tour and luckily enough, it’s all good to go for the last game.”

The almost certain return of Green is likely to see Matthew Renshaw return to open in place of Nic Maddinson, who was drafted in as a late replacement but only fired in one of his four innings at the top of the order.

Whether there are other changes from the disappointment in Gqeberha remains to be seen, with the potential of there being four different faces in the Australian XI for the Cape Town Test.

While the Proteas had a rest day on Saturday at Newlands after a series where there has been play on all 10 allotted days so far, a handful of Australians took part in an optional session.

Green was among them and was put through a searching session in the nets by Michael Neser on a clear afternoon in Cape Town, while Nathan Lyon examined the pitch at length along with other members of the Australian coaching staff.

The main sessions for both sides will occur on Sunday and South Africa confirmed that fast bowler Anrich Nortje would be unavailable after he injured his groin in the second Test.

Green has not been cleared to bowl in the next Test, though with a view to the series against New Zealand beginning in December, it was encouraging to see him rolling the arm over in the nets at St George’s Park in Gqeberha last week.

The Western Australian was among those under pressure leading into the Bangladesh series but a fine century in a losing team in Darwin eased the pressure on him.

The tall right-hander said a decision to return to what he felt was his natural game was a factor in him regaining form, stating he believed he was trying too hard to adjust to the rigours associated with the international red-ball arena.

“It was something I mentioned to Ron (McDonald) and Paddy (Cummins) probably before the Darwin game,” he said.

“I felt like I’d found a way that I liked to play the game, and certainly that probably hadn’t been there for the last few years.

“I’ve tried to change my game to adapt to international cricket or the best way that I saw fit (and) I probably just went away from how I play the game naturally, and that’s certainly how I felt up in the Top End series.

“Certainly up in Mackay and Darwin were huge positives in … how I wanted to play the game. And that was probably the learnings I took from the last Shield game I played.

“(That is how) I wanted to play and it felt pretty natural to me. So yeah, there’s certainly learning there of how I went about it in those games. Hopefully I can take it forward.”

With speculation around the position of Marnus Labuschagne, it is notable that Green was tried at No.3 in the World Test Championship decider against South Africa at Lord’s last year.

He averaged 23.5 at first drop which, it must be said, has become a hot seat for Labuschagne given the struggles of Australia’s Test openers over the past two years to survive for lengthy periods and blunt the new ball.

“It was a tough experience for sure. It is pretty unique that you’re playing South Africa with the Dukes balls in England,” Green said.

“So … I think there’s a lot of good learnings, a lot of tough learnings, but obviously they’re such a quality bowling lineup that you’ve got to be on your game at all times to succeed against them, regardless of where you bat.

“But certainly up the top of the order is incredibly difficult, I think, because they have got their opening bowlers, well, they are so great with the new ball. So you have got to work really hard, especially at the start there.”

He noted the challenge differed from batting at No.5 but that he would bat wherever required by the Australian selectors.

“I think obviously I’ve had a lot of experience up and down the order, and yeah, I think I’m well suited at four and five,” Green said.

“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.”

Green is mindful of the threat posed by the South African attack led by Kagiso Rabada that routed Australia for just 99 runs in the first innings in Gqeberha.

But he is also confident the Australians will respond well to the loss after skipper Pat Cummins said it might be the defeat the team needed to click into top gear.

“They’re obviously at the very top of their game at the moment. They’re probably in the top few bowlers in the world, so you always love those challenges,” Green said.

“You want to step up against those guys and show what you can do and I’m looking forward to whatever happens in Cape Town.

“The mood has been really good. I think it’s a really consistent change room that Andy McDonald makes, regardless if you win or lose, I think you try and keep a pretty clear and calm head.

“There’s obviously certain things that you would take out of that game that we know we didn’t do quite right, but the mood has been really good, and I think we’re looking forward to putting on a good show in Cape Town.”

The South Africans, meanwhile, are buoyed by what happened when they shelved the loose shots that plagued them in Darwin and applied pressure on the Australians in the second Test, veteran off-spinner Simon Harmer said.

While the Australians are adamant that having flexibility in the batting line-up is a strength, with adjustable orders the flavour of the month, the Proteas appear to have identified it as a weakness based on Harmer’s comments to South African journalists following the innings and 31 run win in Gqeberha.

“The most frustrating thing was knowing there were a couple of guys who had either come back into their Test team or were playing out of position, and we weren’t able to exploit that (in Durban),” Harmer said.

“To be able to do that in Gqeberha and put the pressure back onto them, to be 1-0 down and turn it around (was good). And to realise that they are human and if we bowl well and put them under pressure there is the possibility that we can get on top of them.

“Durban was a tough few days for us. We knew we weren’t at the level we wanted to be at. I remember standing on the field and looking up at the scoreboard and seeing the boys that were on the field and being, like, ‘Geez, this is a proper team.’

“Everybody felt like we let ourselves down. So there was a lot of motivation and fire burning in the belly because we didn’t put our best foot forward and that we lost not on our terms.”