‘Very rare’: Green makes T20 presence felt

Cameron Green looms as Australia’s flexible T20 weapon for the upcoming series against England, with captain Mitch Marsh keen to get “as much T20 cricket into him” as possible.

The star all-rounder made 98 runs off 62 balls in two matches batting up the order against Scotland, after being boosted from No.7, with this three wickets in the final match of the 3-0 clean sweep enough for player of the match honours.

Green will get ample batting time in the next three games before the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Marnus Labuschagne, Matthew Short and Steve Smith join the Australian squad for five ODIs to round out the lengthy white-ball UK tour.

Marsh said the Scotland leg of the trip not only provided opportunities, with Jake Fraser McGurk playing all three games, making two ducks, in his international T20 debut and Cooper Connolly also getting his maiden cap in game three, but allowed the new faces to gel.

“I hope people saw the energy in the field and a couple of young kids getting a crack and it’s a great thing about this series,” Marsh said before moving from Edinburgh to Southampton ahead of Wednesday’s opening T20 against England.

“One of the things we spoke about at the start of the series was just coming together and making this team our own over the next couple of weeks. We’ve built on that over this little period of time.”

Marsh said 21-year-old Connolly, who didn’t get a bat on debut but took 0-25 with the ball, “ticks a lot of boxes” and looms as a player to call on going forward. He’ll stay with the T20 squad in England but drop out for the ODIs.

Green, however, will remain a key part of both squads as he continues to reinforce his capacity to impact in all three forms of the game.

Marsh said Green’s flexibility, like several others in the batting order, and his world-class bowling, made him a white-ball weapon for the Australians.

“We knew that before we came in, guys would get opportunities in different positions and we just want to get as much T20 cricket as we can into him,” he said.

“He can be down at four but with our middle order anyone can slide form four to seven, so it’s more dependent on how we’re going at the time and a good thing about Cameron is we see him being able to bat anywhere from anywhere in the order which is very rare.”

Fast bowler Josh Hazlewood will join the squad for the T20s, giving vital experience for the clashes against England who will be without star captain Jos Buttler.