Steve Smith has launched an impassioned defense of Cameron Green but cannot guarantee the out-of-form all-rounder’s place in the XI for the final of the Ashes series.
Australia’s stand-in captain insists all options are on the selection table for the fifth Test, including using both all-rounders Green and Beau Webster at the SCG and omitting spin for the third time in four starts.
‘We’ll find out [the team] once we see the surface and see which way we want to go,” Smith said Saturday morning.
With the urn already retained, World Test Championship points and the chance to dismiss the outgoing Usman Khawaja as the winner appear to be the hosts’ biggest motivations.
But the pressure on 26-year-old Green, the youngest member of the team, is increasing.
Green has been a solid contributor with the ball in this Ashes series and has moved up the batting order with an average of 18.7 runs and one score above 24 from six innings.
Even that high score – 45 under lights in Brisbane – was overshadowed by a daring, premeditated shot that exposed his stumps and was deflected by Brydon Carse.
Smith, who got off to a poor start last home summer, felt for Green.
“We’ve been playing on some hard hitting surfaces,” the veteran right-hander said. “We’ve seen two games over two days. It’s not easy, but he’s gone off a few times and probably hasn’t continued.”
“That’s probably the disappointing part about it. Starting your innings is actually the hardest part. He does that quite well and just finds a way to get out of it. He’s batted in different places, which can’t be that easy either when you’re trying to nail down one kind of role.”
After recovering from a long-term back injury, Green replaced Marnus Labuschagne at No. 3 during the winter Test tour of the West Indies and was Australia’s third top scorer.
“Not long ago he contributed some really valuable runs in the West Indies series on some tricky surfaces,” Smith said. “Greeny hasn’t gotten the points he wanted so far, but I think he’s looked pretty good at times too.
“We know he is a smart player. Every time he returns to Shield cricket he crushes it. Regardless of what happens now, we think he has a very bright future.”
Webster can bowl both spin and pace and has not been given a single chance this series, despite an excellent start to his Test career that continued over the winter.
Both Webster and Green hit the net during practice on Saturday.
With Webster breathing down his fellow all-rounder’s neck, Smith was asked point-blank if Green was locked up until August to play in Australia’s final Test.
“No one has been locked up yet,” he said. “As I said before, we haven’t chosen a team. There are thirteen or fourteen guys on the table, we want to see the wicket and see how we can compare against that.”
Todd Murphy’s hopes of a first home Test match are also up in the air after being overlooked due to the seaming MCG deck.
Murphy last played on the Test tour of Sri Lanka in early 2025 and was included in the Ashes squad as cover for injured veteran Nathan Lyon.
But he may end up going above and beyond as Smith is forced to admit that the SCG was no longer the spinner’s paradise of years gone by.
Lyon’s bowling average of 39.2 at the SCG is his worst at any ground where a Test has been played this series.
“I like the old-fashioned SCG: two days flat, footprints starting to come in, cracks opening, reverse swing, turning late in the game, hard to hit, slow, low wicket, fielders in front of the wicket,” Smith said.
“But I don’t think it’s been that way as long as I’ve been playing, unfortunately. It’s probably one of Nathan Lyon’s worst grounds in Australia, that’s why everything is talked about.”
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