Cameron Green had the rug pulled out from under him by his own teammates after being forced to wait for a special moment on debut.
Cameron Green has enjoyed a rapid rise but he was forced to wait his turn on day one of the first Test against India.
The 21-year-old is making his debut in Adelaide and thought he’d been given the green light to roll his arm over for the first time representing his country in the five-day format.
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Green took off his cap, grabbed the pink ball, headed to the top of his bowling mark and started limbering up in preparation to try and dislodge Cheteshwar Pujara in the first session on Thursday.
But the young gun quickly learnt his place in the pecking order. Pat Cummins went up to him, signalled to captain Tim Paine, then promptly took the ball back off Green and continued his spell, relegating the West Australian back to his fielding position.
The Adelaide crowd had started cheering in anticipation of welcoming Green to the bowling crease but was forced to hold its applause until later in the day.
It turns out it was a simple misunderstanding. Explaining his snub on day two, Green told Fox Cricket the instructions from his skipper were misinterpreted.
“Tim Paine said, ‘You’ve got five minutes to get ready’ and Patty hadn’t even started his over beforehand,” Green said.
“Overs normally take three or four minutes so in my head I’m doing the math and thinking I’ve got the next one.
“Then he might have said five overs’ time instead of five minutes. There were a few things going through my head so I wasn’t thinking too clearly.”
The Fox Cricket commentators certainly saw the funny side to it.
“We were starting to get excited. He had the ball in hand and then Patty said, ‘Sorry mate’,” Mark Howard said.
“Just establishing the order there, was Patty.”
Shane Warne added: “Jeez. Tell you what, Test debut, bit of nerves, tell him he’s bowling then take it out of his hand and say, ‘Nah just kidding, I’m having one more’.”
Green eventually bowled nine wicketless innings in India’s first innings, and made 11 with the bat on day two before miscuing a pull shot that was snaffled by a diving Virat Kohli at mid-wicket.
Australia was bowled out for 191 in response to India’s 24. The tourists will resume their second innings today at 1/9.
