When Green made his Test debut in 2020 he did so on restricted bowling loads of about four overs an innings, and he may be in line for a similar workload by the end of the India Tests.
Melbourne and Sydney have traditionally been the Test matches where Australia’s selectors look more ardently for fifth bowling options, both because of the slower nature of the pitches and the fact that the matches typically fall at the back end of long series.
“The issue is the load, and as the bone recovers you gradually increase the load through the bone,” Brukner said. “The load comes mainly from bowling – batting and fielding don’t put a huge load on that part of the body, so it’s feasible that once the pain settles down you can bat and field without too many problems and feel fine.
Michael Neser took wickets with his first two balls of the Sheffield Shield season.Credit: Getty Images
“It’s just that if you were to bowl 10 overs you’d probably break down again. So it’s a case of slowly building up the load so the bone basically adjusts to the load and gets stronger. There’s a bit of an art to it.”
Without Green, the likes of Scott Boland and Michael Neser will be in line as reserve options. Neser made the perfect start to the season for Queensland at the WACA Ground, nipping out Cameron Bancroft and Jayden Goodwin with the first two balls of the match, before following up by finding an edge from Marsh.
Bancroft’s exit contrasted with a sparkling hundred on the other side of the country by fellow opener Marcus Harris, who navigated a tricky morning session at a wintry Junction Oval before skating to three figures from 146 balls and ultimately reaching 143, watched by national selector Tony Dodemaide. Victorian skipper Peter Handscomb also scored 129 as the home side reached 7-330 at stumps.
Also notable was a crisp hundred by highly-regarded NSW opener Sam Konstas, 19, who handled a strong South Australian seam attack with plenty of class in Sydney to make his first Shield century a big one – 152 in all – as selection chair George Bailey watched on.
As is the way in 2024, Konstas had not even reached 50 when one of his princely cover drives was captured by an Instagram reel. There will be more of those to come.
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.