“[Green’s] progressing well,” McDonald said after Australia’s victory in Durban. “He’s got a few things to go through in the next three, four days. He’ll progress [on] that and, on the back of a soft tissue injury, it can accelerate quite quickly.
“Josh had a couple of hits during this Test match out the back of the nets during lunchtime and that’s gone well. It’ll be more about the comfort with the splint and how that progresses. He’ll have bat vs ball sessions in PE [Gqeberha] and we’ll get more information there.”
Green was Australia’s best batter in the series against Bangladesh in August.
“We put all the options back on the table and we go, okay, what’s the best order at this point in time? That’s how it played out,” McDonald said of how they made their final calls for Durban. “We didn’t make that decision until two days out on the back of our strategy meeting. I think the pleasing part internally from our group is that they [the players] are willing to embrace the role that we think as a collective and can go out there and execute and win a Test match.”
McDonald echoed the views of Cummins that nothing needed to be set in stone regarding the batting order.
“I suppose the external view on that is that you need specific orders at certain times and this person’s an opener, this person’s a middle-order player,” he said. “I think we’re more open-minded than that. So we’ll assess what we need to do going to the next Test [on a] different surface, potentially, not sure what it sort of holds there, but in terms of where Renners [Renshaw] will bat, we’ll work through that leading into the next Test.”
Given the convincing nature of the victory in Durban, if Green doesn’t come into contention for the second Test it would appear unlikely that Australia will make personnel changes, even if positional ones remain a possibility. Unless any of the quicks pulls up sore in the four-day turnaround, with the same gap into the final Test in Cape Town.
Workloads were shared evenly at Kingsmead: Mitchell Starc bowled 33 overs, Josh Hazlewood 32.5, and Cummins 29. They were aided by Nathan Lyon being able to provide control in both innings while the bowling was backed up by brilliant catching. Scott Boland and Michael Neser are the extra pace bowlers in the squad.
“Over the next couple of days we’ll assess where everyone is at,” McDonald said. “There’s a fair bit to work through in that space but our SSSM [sports science sports medicine] team are incredibly important to us with that cohort of fast bowlers that aren’t getting any younger. The management and the investment that they also put into their own bodies to get ready is a credit to them and you see that play out.”