Maddinson and Harper called into Test squad as Green injury confirmed

Nic Maddinson and Sam Harper have been vaulted into Australia’s Test squad to face South Africa, amid doubts about the fitness of Cameron Green and Josh Inglis.

Green sent alarm bells through Australia’s camp ahead of the series against South Africa after appearing to suffer an abdominal injury while batting in the final ODI against the Proteas.

Having already dealt with shoulder soreness that delayed his return to bowling, Green reeled away in pain, clutching his stomach after trying to hook a delivery from Corbin Bosch.

On Friday night the selectors named wicketkeeper Harper, who made a century for Australia A in India last week, and sometime Test player Maddinson, as dual cover for Inglis (broken finger) and Green, who was confirmed as having suffered an abdominal strain.

Maddinson made a one day Cup century for NSW against Victoria to start the home season. Last summer he made a comeback to the game after treatment for testicular cancer.

His selection was made ahead of numerous Australia A players such as Sam Konstas, Nathan McSweeney and Peter Handscomb.

“Sam gives us wicketkeeping cover as Josh continues his recovery while Nic provides flexibility throughout the batting order,” said selection chair George Bailey.

It had been a dramatic over in which Green had been struck amidships by Bosch and also flicked a delivery for six, but the apparent muscle strain was bad enough to prevent Green from being part of the bowling attack as Australia won the game on rain calculations.

“He was locked in to bowl a few overs today,” white-ball skipper Mitch Marsh said of Green. “He had a nice build and it would’ve been nice for him to have a bowl, but it wasn’t meant to be, and I’m sure that it won’t affect his prep too much, hopefully.”

Green attempted to bowl during the innings break, but after sending down a few half-pace deliveries under the watch of the team physio, aborted the attempt and was then off the field for the rest of the game.

Australia were also monitoring Test opener Matt Renshaw after he suffered a blow to the wrist in the field, forcing him off for treatment.

“I sound like a footy coach, but I haven’t seen them,” Marsh said. “I know ‘Renners’ got a knock on the wrist, and ‘Greeny’ after being hit, I’m not too sure what was going on there, I haven’t spoken to them yet. But hopefully both are OK.”

An injury to Green would be a major blow to Australia’s hopes of winning in South Africa, particularly after he broke through for a first Test century on home soil against Bangladesh in Darwin in August.

Marsh, meanwhile, said that he was currently planning to fly home to Perth rather than joining the Test squad, but conceded that skipper Cummins still saw him as part of the Test team’s plans should the need arise.

“If Pat says the door’s open then it’s open,” Marsh said. “I don’t think I’ll ever be good enough to retire from Test cricket.”

Asked how he would approach batting in Tests were he ever to play again, Marsh paused. “It’s a great question, I don’t really know,” he said. “I imagine it’ll be similar to my white-ball game if I was to get another crack at it.”

Marsh led the team despite Cummins’ return to the line-up for his first ODI in two years, in which he bowled five sharp overs during the Proteas’ unsuccessful chase.

“I see it as a bit of an open book really, Pat is the ODI skipper, his schedule is hectic as we all know,” Marsh said. “So today was a case of me finishing the series, Pat hasn’t played one-day cricket for a while, and he’s got a big couple of weeks coming up, so we share the role.

“We’ve got a great relationship, and even having him out there, we work so well together and it didn’t look like he hadn’t played an ODI for 700 days, so it was certainly nice to have him back.”

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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via X.