Australia’s selectors will spend the next fortnight working out exactly where Cameron Green slots into their one-day side, starting with three ODIs in Pakistan from 30 May and another three in Bangladesh straight after. Glenn Maxwell’s retirement leaves a large hole in the late-innings power-hitting department, and head coach Andrew McDonald wants to know if Green can fill it before the 2027 World Cup in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
“We keep these things open,” McDonald said before the squad flew out. “I think he’s got the ability to play high up the order and low. He does have some power, and we saw that in that top-end series last year against South Africa, his ability to finish off that innings, and with the absence of Glenn Maxwell we had that conversation … Experiment is not the right word, but we’ll look at different ways to play in the journey to the 2027 World Cup and where he fits exactly in that. We’ve got some options there because of his range of skills, but definitely the bowling is a big part of that.”
Green’s ODI record is already curious. He travelled home from the 2023 World Cup with a winner’s medal yet only three appearances. Australia preferred an extra specialist batter in the semi-final and final, leaving the seam-bowling all-rounder on the bench. A stress-fracture in his back then ruled him out of the 2025 Champions Trophy, just as he was starting to cement a place.
There have been undeniable highs. His maiden ODI hundred – a blistering 47-ball effort against South Africa in Kimberley last August – remains fresh in the memory. But since then he has endured a lean Ashes, a quiet T20 World Cup and, most recently, an up-and-down IPL campaign.
The numbers from his first season with Kolkata Knight Riders sum up the mixed picture: 322 runs at 32.20, two fifties and a strike-rate of 145.7; seven wickets at 32.72, but a bruising economy rate north of ten. “It feels like his bowling is progressing,” McDonald argued. “Like previous IPLs, the more bowling he gets under his belt, there’s improvement there … the skills are coming back, white-ball skills in particular, and off the back of the surgery he’s had.”
For the moment Green is pencilled in at No. 6, a position Maxwell made his own, yet he has spent his last seven ODI innings at three and four. The coaching staff want him to absorb as many situations as possible – early rebuilds, middle-overs manoeuvring, final-over fireworks – before deciding where he offers most value. Australia play 20, perhaps 21, Tests over the next 18 months, on top of limited-overs commitments, so workload management will also come into the calculation.
One name not on the Pakistan and Bangladesh team sheets is Tim David. The selectors sounded him out about 50-over availability but, for now, the power-hitter is sticking to T20. They remain optimistic he could still feature closer to 2027, when the next World Cup heads to southern Africa. That leaves Green, Marcus Stoinis and Mitch Marsh as the seam-bowling options who can bat, with Matt Short pushing from the fringes.
Green himself has spoken only briefly, preferring to let the bat (and occasionally the ball) do the talking. Those around him sense an opportunity. “Cam’s skills give us flexibility,” one team-mate noted on condition of anonymity. “Whether that’s finishing an innings or giving the quicks a breather, he can do both.”
For now the plan is straightforward: try him in a finishing role against Pakistan and Bangladesh, collect the data, then reassess ahead of the home summer. If it works, Australia may have found a like-for-like successor to Maxwell. If not, other configurations remain.
The next fortnight, therefore, is less about short-term results and more about information gathering. Australia, as ever, will aim to win, but the coaching staff will be watching just as closely for signs that Green can close out an innings under pressure, nail his yorkers at the death and endure the daily grind of batting, bowling and fielding in sticky Asian conditions.
It is, in McDonald’s words, “part of the journey”. Whether that journey ends with Green in the same XI that walks out for the 2027 World Cup opener remains to be seen, but the first steps start now.
