At the time the World Cup squad was named, Green, Glenn Maxwell, Warner and Marcus Stoinis were among the players questioned for being chosen ahead of Fraser-McGurk, as he went on a tear of unbridled hitting for Delhi Capitals.
But since then, Green’s consistency in a new middle-order role for Royal Challengers Bangalore helped revive their previously flagging campaign. Green clouted 38 from 17 balls batting at number four, then claimed a wicket in his two overs as RCB snared the last place in the IPL finals, knocking out the perennial contenders Chennai Super Kings overnight.
In all-rounders Green and Stoinis (388 runs at a strike rate of 147.52 for the IPL), plus backup wicketkeeper Josh Inglis, the Australians have a highly flexible group of middle-order options, each with more than one tool in their arsenal. Tim David and gloveman Matt Wade are the players cast as late-order batting “finishers”.
Equally heartening for the Australian side was the return of Glenn Maxwell after he effectively dropped himself from the RCB side earlier in the tournament, using the time away to make some technical adjustments to his game after a highly successful but draining previous 12 months.
After a five-ball cameo worth 16 runs, Maxwell opened the bowling for RCB, claimed the wicket of CSK captain Ruturaj Gaekwad first ball and twirled down four overs for just 25 runs. Refreshed by his time out, Maxwell now has the chance to run into some better form with the bat in the finals.
Nathan Lyon, meanwhile, backed up his contention that Australia would have won last year’s Ashes series 4-0 had he not been hobbled by a calf tear during the Lord’s Test.
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A meeting between Lyon and Ben Stokes in County cricket lasted a mere eight balls, as the Australian spinner made the most of helpful conditions bowling for Lancashire to have England’s captain in all sorts of bother for Durham before he skewed a sharp catch to second slip.
“I do believe if I was here it would have been 4-0 to Australia,” Lyon told the BBC earlier this month.
“I have been part of two teams that retained the Ashes here, let’s not forget about that. But, yeah, 100 per cent the bucket-list dreams for me are to win Test series here and in India.”