Peter Handscomb.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images
Australia are mulling the choice of bringing again Peter Handscomb to bat in the middle-order for his capacity to play spin, if Cameron Green doesn’t get well in time for their sequence opener towards India from February 9, head coach and selector Andrew McDonald indicated.
Recovering from a fractured finger, seam-bowling all-rounder Green can be named in the Test squad alongside Handscomb.
“He’s really important,” McDonald was quoted saying in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“It’s been well documented over a period of time that his play against spin is excellent, and we feel as though he’s returned probably to what he was producing two or three years ago.”
Both Handscomb and Green are present process batting practices on tailored “scarified” pitches in the sultry situations of Bon Andrews Oval in North Sydney for them to expertise match simulation forward of the four-Test sequence that may decide their World Test Championship Final qualification.
Handscomb was additionally a member of their final tour to India in 2017. He additionally gives the utility worth by doubling up as a wicketkeeper.
“Lots of runs in Shield cricket on those slower surfaces as well. He’s able to keep as well, so it gives us every option for Josh (Inglis) not to be there and if anything were to happen to Alex Carey, there’s flexibility there, but also in close fielder as well, bat pad, highly valued when you tour the subcontinent.
“We see him as an essential right-hand choice. Got numerous left-handers, so essential right-hand choice for us. If there have been to be any late modifications, or Cameron Green would not make that first Test, we really feel we now have some good choices.
“We value his (Green) batting first and foremost really, he’s a batter in our top six and we value that, his bowling is a bonus,” McDonald added.
“Where he’s positioned at the moment, his biggest challenge is bowling. There is a lack of loading there, and it’s one of the key reasons around us getting into this camp and this mode early.
“He’s bought to seek the advice of with the surgeon once more tomorrow, and that is in regards to the four-week mark, the place he ought to 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 principle factor, setting him as much as succeed in that first Test match, having a adequate time, that would be the important query,” the coach added.
Australia also had their 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 really feel as if on the market the surfaces we bought are similar to what we’re going to confront in India, which may be very troublesome to duplicate,” McDonald stated.
“But we feel as though we’ve got close to that, so the ground staff have done a fantastic job.”
