All-Round Prospect Cameron Green Believes Ponting Call for Test Call-up ‘Premature’

While Ricky Ponting believes that all-rounder Cameron Green should be brought into the Australian Test squad, the youngster himself believes he isn’t ready yet.

“I did read that, [they are] incredibly nice words from Ricky,” Green said. “But I think it’s still a bit premature, to be honest. Obviously he’s got a pretty massive word in Australian cricket. But I think at the same time he said it would be a pretty left-field move, and I totally agree with that.

“I think it’s still way too early to be taking those comments pretty heavily. I’ve only played a couple of games as a batsman in the WA squad. I haven’t really got those runs on the board, to be honest. I may have got a couple of good scores out of the way, but I’m definitely a good few years off I’d say.”



The 20-year-old, who scored his second Shield ton in three games against South Australia, has two five-wicket hauls in just 11 first-class games and is averaging 37.71 with the bat and 21.53 with the ball but has been experiencing some back trouble.

“Cameron Green is probably the in-form batsman in the country,” Ponting told cricket.com.au.

“It’d be a pretty left-field decision to make because he’s been batting so low for WA. But he’s not doing much wrong, he’s an exciting talent, and maybe to just include him and have him around the squad and give him a taste of what it’s like might not be a bad thing.

“He’s very young and very raw, but what he’s doing in Shield cricket suggests there’s a whole lot of talent there with both bat and ball.

Green, who is scheduled to have scans on Tuesday, does not have a stress fracture and is unlikely to bowl until the BBL.

“I thought it was pretty serious,” Green said. “I’ve had three or four back injuries in the past that actually didn’t hurt while doing everything else apart from bowling. This one, my back was actually pretty sore in the field and at home so I actually thought it was going to be a lot worse but the scan actually came up absolutely clear. My back was fine. I’m not really sure what was causing the pain but I was just sore.”

However, despite not bowling at the moment Green still wants to be a genuine all-rounder. “Coming through as a junior I’ve always seen myself as a genuine all-rounder,” he said. “At times for WA, I was definitely a bowling all-rounder, batting nine or ten and not scoring too many runs. So I’m pretty happy I’m getting a couple of runs out the way but in the future, I’d like to be a genuine all-rounder.”

Green, who broke onto the scene a couple of years ago, has been lapping up advice off Marcus Stoinis about the allrounder’s role. They shared a 122-run stand on day one against South Australia to dig WA out of a hole, but Green has paid more attention to Stoinis’ bowling. “He thinks about the game so much and every single time he gets a wicket I go up and ask did you change anything, just trying to take little hints of what he does,” Green said.