Australia are considering the possibility of returning Peter Hanscomb to the middle order for spin prowess if Cameron Green does not recover before the series opener against India on 9 February. Head coach and selector Andrew McDonald hinted.
Seam bowling all-rounder Green, who is recovering from a broken finger, has also been named to the Test team alongside Handscombe.
“He’s really important,” McDonald told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“His excellent play on spin has been well documented for a long time, and I feel like I’m back to what I was producing maybe a couple of years ago,” he added. Both Handscom and Green practice batting on custom-built ‘scratch’ pitches in the sultry surroundings of Bon Andrews Oval in North Sydney, where they compete in a series of four tests that will determine the qualifiers for the eventual World Test Championship. You can experience the game simulation before.
Handscomb were also part of the final tour to India in 2017.
“We had a lot of runs done in Shield cricket even on these slower surfaces. He can hold too, so we have all the options Josh [Inglis] not there. Something happens to Alex Carey. If you’re a short-range fielder, there’s flexibility in your butt pad, and you’ll have the flexibility to travel the subcontinent. “We see him as an important right-handed choice. I am more left-handed, so a very important right-handed choice for us. If we don’t, I think we have some good options,” he added.
“I appreciate his (green) shot first and foremost. He’s a top-six hitter and his bowling is a bonus,” McDonald added.
“Where he is now, bowling is his biggest challenge. There is a shortage of cargo there, which he said is one of the main reasons we got into this camp and mode early.
“He’s got to consult with the surgeon again tomorrow, and that’s about the four-week mark, where he should be given a tick of approval that that bone has healed.”
“I don’t want to speak medical terms here, but basically after that, it should be just building him up and see how he goes each session.”
“Building confidence is the main thing, setting him up to succeed in that first Test match, having a good enough time, that will be the critical question,” the coach added.
Australia also had its injured paceman Mitchell Starc back in the training, and he is likely to arrive late for the tour ahead of the second Test in Delhi.
McDonald also hailed North Sydney Oval curator Kieran Meurant, who prepared a pitch similar to the ones in India.
“We feel as though out there the surfaces we got are very similar to what we are going to confront in India, which is very difficult to replicate,” McDonald said.
“But we feel as though we’ve got close to that, so the ground staff have done a fantastic job,” he said.