The Ashes Boxing Day Test day one recap: The Cameron Green brain fade that sparked an epic collapse

2 months ago 14

The stage was set for the man long touted to be the next big thing of Australian cricket to have his breakthrough moment. Instead, Cameron Green made himself the main course in a Boxing Day BBQ.

Like all-rounders Mitchell Marsh and Shane Watson before him, Green has become the whipping boy among fans who have lost patience with the youngest player in an ageing team – and dismissals like Friday’s do nothing to win them over.

Cameron Green slides on the ground as he unsuccessfully tries to avoid being runout by England

It takes a team to collapse, but some are more culpable than others. If Jake Weatherald, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne would not want to see their wicket again, then Green would like to have the tape of his buried in a hole as deep as the one he wished would have swallowed him up whole in the middle of the MCG.

Just as calmer waters were within sight, Green sunk the life raft, his run out sparking a collapse of 4-9 in 20 balls, leaving Australia with their seventh-lowest first innings at the MCG. The only blessing for Australia was that England’s subsequent capitulation was even more spectacular.

In his 36th Test appearance in the baggy green, and at the age of 26, Green’s apprenticeship is well and truly over, yet he continues to make the mistakes of a greenhorn.

In Brisbane, he backed away amid a bumper barrage anticipating another bouncer only to be bowled by a half-volley. Last week in Adelaide, he clipped a ball to mid-wicket then nicked off driving on the up like a Bazballer.

This run out topped the lot – a brain fade in front of more than 90,000 that sent social media into meltdown.

As generally the youngest player in the team since he became baggy green No.459, Green has become accustomed to paying respect to his elders, but this was a moment he needed to recognise he was the senior man.

Dropping the ball on the off side, Green took off only to second-guess his own call, as if waiting for validation from Michael Neser, a man nine years older but playing just his fourth Test.

Neser, however, had taken the cue from Green’s initial steps and was committed. He was not to blame. The hesitation and loss of momentum cost Green, as did his diagonal running line through the adjacent strip. He barbecued himself.

Green is a conundrum. His dismissals this series are those of an immature mind yet Green as a 21-year-old prioritised a mindfulness coach to alleviate anxiety when others his age would sweat it out in the gym or the nets.

His wicket came out of the blue – as much as one can on a day when there were 20 of them.

On a pitch bearing 10 millimetres of grass, Green had played with a calmness not evident even in Steve Smith. His pull shot off Josh Tongue, the second of back-to-back boundaries, bore the authority of Ricky Ponting in his prime.

He finished the over by shouldering arms twice and a textbook defensive shot back down the line. Players averaging less than 22 this year do not play with such conviction.

Cameron Green was looking good before his brain fade.

In Beau Webster, Australia have a ready-made replacement – who, in similar conditions, bailed his country out of trouble several times last year against an attack with Jasprit Bumrah.

Nobody would describe Webster as the best since Ponting, as Greg Chappell said of Green in 2020. In his past seven Tests, he is averaging 34.6 with four half-centuries and eight wickets at 23 compared to Green’s 21.6 with the bat and 52.66 with the ball.

At the age of 32, Webster is a player for the here and now. Green’s time should be now.

Those with a glass half full view of Green’s numbers this year will point to his steadiness in torrid conditions in the Caribbean. The same selectors who batted Green at three in July now have him at No.7. The next stop on the totem pole is out of the side.

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