Cameron Green kept things simple in Grenada. He survived a lively second evening, relied on a bit of luck the following morning and – at last – walked off with 52 runs next to his name. Nothing flashy, just a valuable knock that may steady Australia’s top order.
The raw facts first. Australia were wobbling when the tall all-rounder joined Steven Smith late on day two. Both had to deal with a new ball, a tacky pitch and a fired-up Jayden Seales. By stumps they were still there. Early rain on the third morning lengthened the examination, but the pair added a 93-run stand that underpinned the tourists’ total.
Green admitted the surface never let batters settle. A ball from Anderson Phillip scuttled past his off stump, through Shai Hope and away for four byes. “Praying…that’s all you can really do,” he said. “You just try and forget about it as much as possible.” At other times, the bounce leapt at throat height, so the fifty – raised from 122 deliveries with a rasping straight drive – felt hard-earned. One ball later he under-edged on to his stumps and hurled the bat into the turf. A mix of relief and annoyance, as human as it comes.
This was Green’s first half-century since being promoted to No.3 during last month’s World Test Championship final. “You always need innings here and there just to get you back and get you going, hopefully today was certainly one of those,” he said. “A lot of good things I can get out of just spending time in the middle. I think the ball’s faced has been trending up. The runs haven’t been there, but there’s certainly little positives I can take out of it.”
He added: “Hopefully my output can be a little bit better than it has been, but today was a nice sign that things are hopefully trending well.”
Australia’s top three – Khawaja, Green and Smith – have been under the microscope all tour. Green keeps the outside noise at arm’s length yet understands what’s expected. “You all know when you’re playing that there’s runs that need to be made certainly when you’re batting up the order for Australia,” he said. “It’s a tough game, so being able to bounce back from tough times is equally as important.”
Conditions did not ease. Green described the final session of day two as “tricky”, then had to “start again” against a fresh ball on the third morning. Several replacements were needed after the seam gave way. “I never really felt at any point it looked that good,” he said. “You’d probably ask a different question to Steve. I think he was batting on a different wicket. He’s clearly a class above and that’s a tough wicket, so to play as well as he did was incredible.”
Smith, always twitchy, noticed one Phillip delivery grub along the ground and promptly shifted his stance from off stump to middle. He explained afterwards, minus any frills, that he simply wanted to stay still and protect against lbw – a small example of his in-game tinkering that newer viewers might miss but team-mates take for granted.
So where does this leave Green? Statistically, the fifty doesn’t overhaul a modest start to life at first drop, but in context it matters. He faced the new ball, absorbed pace and seam, and showed he can graft when stroke-making is risky.
Some obvious work remains: turning starts into hundreds, tightening the cut shot on lifters, and ensuring the urge to chase wide ones stays buried. For now, though, a small corner appears to have been turned, and Australia will take that.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Green concluded while packing his kit away, “but sometimes you just have to wear the ugly ones.” On this surface, nobody argued.
