Follow UsAfter being reintegrated into the Test side as a specialist batter at No.3, Cameron Green had a horror return, registering scores of 4 & 0 in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against South Africa.
The tour of West Indies was supposed to give him ‘breathing space’ and help him get some runs under his belt, but he began the tour with scores of 3, 15 & 26, looking like a fish out of water at No.3.
However, under extreme pressure to make runs, Green delivered in the second innings of the ongoing second Test, posting a well-compiled 52 in significantly tough conditions on an up-and-down Grenada wicket.
It’s not been easy going at all, but the 26-year-old is hopeful of kicking on from here.
"You always need an innings here and there just to get you going and hopefully today was one of those," Green said after day three, reported Cricket.com.au.
"If anything, it's good to get some time out there, there's a lot of good things I get out of just spending time in the middle.
"My balls faced has been trending up; the runs haven't been there, but there's certainly little positives I can take out of it.
"To be able to sneak into (the team) while still not bowling, I'm incredibly grateful for that and hopefully my output can be a little better than it has been. But today was a nice sign that things are trending well.”
Green had to dig hard, and it’s reflected on the scorecard as he took 123 balls for his 52, hitting just five fours in total. But the youngster was almost left astonished by the level shown by Steve Smith, who looked untroubled all day long and finished with 71 off 119 balls.
Green and Smith got together at 28/3 and batted on till 121/3 before Green chopped one back on to his stumps.
"I don't think I ever really felt comfortable out there [on that pitch] – certainly [Friday] night was tricky and just with the new ball today I had to start again,” he said.
"You could probably ask a different question to Steve, he was batting on a different wicket. He's clearly a class above – that's a tough wicket so to play as well as he did was incredible."
The 26-year-old, who has taken the place of Marnus Labuschagne, said that he understands the magnitude of the task at hand [batting at No.3 for Australia] and hoped to do justice to the faith shown in him.
"We all know … there's runs that need to be made, certainly when batting up the order for Australia," Green said.
"That's what we all love, to be out there making runs. It's a tough game, so being able to bounce back from tough times is equally as important, so there's good signs out there."
Australia lead by 254 runs with three wickets in hand, with Alex Carey still unbeaten on 26. With a victory here, they will seal the series.