In Tests, he last bowled against West Indies in the 2024-25 home series.
Australia head coach Andrew McDonald has hinted that Cameron Green may return to bowling duties ahead of the eagerly awaited Ashes 2025, scheduled for later this year. The all-rounder is set to play a Test match on home soil for the first time in almost a year.
The 26-year-old has undergone four stress fractures in his lower back since his junior days. He was detected with a unique defect in an adjacent area to the fracture last year, which contributed largely to his injury. The injury forced him to miss nine months of the game. As a result, he missed the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, Sri Lanka tour, Champions Trophy 2025, and Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025.
The right-hand batter returned to competitive cricket during the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 Final, which Australia lost to South Africa by five wickets. While he has made headlines with his batting in white-ball formats for Australia, Green hasn’t been able to replicate similar performances in the red-ball format since his return.
In the last four Tests, Green, who played as a specialist batter, managed just 188 runs, averaging 23.50, including one fifty. He hasn’t bowled since his comeback in June last year. Ahead of The Ashes 2025, the right-arm pacer will feature in the Sheffield Shield before Australia takes on India in ODIs and T20Is next month.
The head coach believes that Green’s rolling arm will help manage Pat Cummins. The captain is already battling with a stressed lumbar bone, and his availability for the entire series is undecided.
“The other thing too that he will help us manage the other three quicks. It’s no different to Ben Stokes and the way that he was used and didn’t quite get through five test matches, which is always a question mark how much you use your all-rounders, but they definitely allow you to manage your fast bowlers,” McDonald to SEN Mornings.
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McDonald didn’t rule out a change in Green’s batting position, depending on his bowling load throughout the series. Green has mainly batted lower down the order, with 36 out of 51 outings at No.6 or 7. The all-rounder may replace out-of-runs Marnus Labuschagne at No.3. It will allow the Aussies to play a seam bowling all-rounder in Beau Webster at No.7.
“There’s nothing wrong with front-ending your overs in an innings as well as an all-rounder and if he wants to bat higher, then potentially from 50 overs onwards or depending on where the opponent’s at, you might drop off the load there, so then he’s fresher to bat. You can still do a little bit of in-game management and be creative around that, so we’re not fixed on it, but it’s definitely a conversation,” McDonald believes.
The Ashes 2025 will commence at Perth’s Optus Stadium on November 21. The hosts will start as the favourites, having not lost the Ashes in a decade.
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