Beau Webster knows runs on the board do not guarantee a baggy green. Four half-centuries in seven Tests – plus eight useful wickets and safe hands in the slips – have him firmly in the frame for the No. 6 slot. Yet with Cameron Green’s bowling programme back on schedule, the all-rounder also accepts his place could vanish before England land for the Ashes in November.
“When you’re at the top level, you’re fighting to hang on to your spot,” Webster said in Hobart after a brief return from Warwickshire. “With all the wonderful cricketers around the country, and especially a guy like Cameron Green, he batted at the top of the order [in the West Indies], and didn’t bowl. He’s obviously going to be back bowling this summer, which is going to put a bit more pressure on my spot at No. 6 as the allrounder. But I welcome it.”
Those remarks came at the end of a winter that showcased the 31-year-old’s knack for important knocks. A gritty debut fifty against India at the SCG helped Australia seal the Border‐Gavaskar Trophy. He top-scored in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s and then added further fifties on lively pitches in Barbados and Grenada. Useful overs of brisk medium pace rounded off the package, as did a couple of sharp grabs at second slip. Not bad for a man who was still almost anonymous outside Tasmania a year ago.
Even so, selectors have options. If Green drops back down the list – and distances himself from the top-three experiment that ended well enough in Trinidad – two batting slots have to appear. One is already vacant after Sam Konstas’ lean tour of the Caribbean. The other would come only if Webster makes way.
“I feel like I’ve been in this position before a lot in my career, where I’ve got to score runs to either go to the next level or stay on the team,” he said. “It’s certainly not unfamiliar. I’m looking forward to once again showing what I can do at [Sheffield] Shield level, and hopefully, be lining up in that first Ashes Test in Perth. It’s going to be a massive summer. I’m sure the team’s going to change a little bit throughout those five Tests. I’m just going to do everything I can to make sure I’m there for all five.”
He should get four Shield games before the squad for the first Test, starting 21 November in Perth, is named. Early-season domestic pitches have a reputation for juice; a couple of decent hundreds would go a long way to ending the debate. Webster knows it, too. “There’s no hundred next to my name, which I would have loved to go on with one of those [half-centuries],” he admitted with a rueful grin.
Green, for his part, has spent the off-season in Perth adjusting his action and workload after the side strain that limited him to batting duties alone in the West Indies. High-performance staff are optimistic he will be ready for four-day cricket by late September. If the 25-year-old can bowl 15 overs a day by November – a typical ask for the fifth bowler in Australian conditions – it becomes hard to leave him out.
Former selector Mark Waugh, speaking on Fox Sports last week, summed up the conundrum: “Green’s ceiling is enormous. But Webster’s made himself invaluable. You could pick both, yet you risk a long tail if the keeper is at seven. That’s the puzzle.”
Coach Andrew McDonald offered a softer take while launching the domestic season in Melbourne. “We’re lucky,” he said. “Two genuine all-rounders pushing each other makes us better. We’ll let Shield performances, fitness and conditions guide us.”
As ever the early Ashes narrative will revolve around quicks and pitches, but middle-order stability has quietly become a talking point. Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne are locked in, Usman Khawaja remains first choice at the top and Steven Smith is Steven Smith, yet the balance around them is still fluid.
Webster’s task, then, is simple on paper: score. A maiden first-class hundred since 2023 could cement what the half-centuries have suggested. Miss out, and Green’s return with ball in hand may prove decisive.
Selection meetings are still two and a bit months away, plenty of time for Sheffield Shield form to twist the plot once more. For now, the incumbent appears relaxed, realistic and up for the scrap. A messy, intriguing battle – very much in the spirit of an Ashes summer – has already begun.
