Andrew McDonald drops massive hint at Cameron Green being David Warner's successor
Australia’s Test coach has indicated axed allrounder Cameron Green could be David Warner's replacement at the top of the order.
Andrew McDonald has refused to limit the candidate pool to replace David Warner to specialist openers, insisting axed allrounder Cameron Green could take the place of Warner after the Sydney Test. Warner flagged mid-year that he would call time on his red-ball career at the conclusion of the Benaud-Qadir series against Pakistan, with debate swirling for months about who would take his spot.
Three names continue to be thrown around as Warner's potential replacement, Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris and Queensland's Matt Renshaw. Bancroft is seen by many as the front-runner for a Test recall with 512 runs from just nine innings for Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield competition, while Harris and Renshaw have been brought into the squad as back-ups in recent years.
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However, the Australian Test coach says they may forego selecting a specialist opener and instead reshuffle the order to get Green into the team. After a selection meeting on Saturday, head coach McDonald hinted the allrounder is in line to potentially leapfrog the three specialist openers and claim Warner's place in the side despite never batting at the top of the order in red-ball cricket.
The West Australian was used as an opener for Australia in a T20 series in India in 2022 but has spent most of his Shield career deployed at No.4 for WA and has batted for Australia at No.6. McDonald previously said he believes Green could also make his way into the side by pushing Marnus Labuschagne from first drop to opener.
“All angles will be considered. There's four people that are being discussed, and they’ll be the ones who are taking up our time as we lead into that West Indies game,” McDonald told ABC radio. “In the last 30 years, I think there’s been 30-odd openers, and 50 per cent of them have come from a non-traditional opening background.
“If that’s anything to go by, there is the potential to be able to rejig your order. That’s not to dismiss the value of a tried and tested opener who’s done it over a period of time. We’ll consider all those options and angles and work out what that looks like for us. I think the way this team operates ... if they were asked to do something, they’d jump at it for the team. It’s a pretty selfless group."
Mike Hussey warns against picking Cameron Green as opener
Mike Hussey believes selecting Green to open would be a mistake. "Opening is one of the toughest jobs in the game," he told reporters after it was confirmed he would be inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.
"So for me personally, if I was selecting, I'd be going for a traditional, proper opener - someone who's done it for a long period of time because if you haven't done it much in your first-class career it's going to be very difficult to come up the order."
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