Test talk premature for WA whiz-kid Green

Cameron Green says talk of a Test call-up is premature after the 20-year-old became the first batter to three Marsh Sheffield Shield centuries this summer.

Green, who began the Shield season as a No.9 averaging 17 in first-class cricket, struck his third Shield ton in six games with an unbeaten 158 against Tasmania in WA’s first innings in Hobart.

After adding 45 in their second dig on Wednesday he rose to third spot on the Shield run-scoring charts with 659 at 82.37, while he's also third among batters who have faced the most balls this season.

But the two-metre tall Western Australian is planning to spend his winter getting his body right to return to bowling rather than packing bags for a maiden Test tour.

"I haven't thought about it to be honest," Green told cricket.com.au after play on Tuesday when asked about Australia's next Test series in Bangladesh later this year.

"Bangladesh is completely different conditions to Australia, so I wouldn't assume they would go down that path."

Selectors will likely consider a batting allrounder for the Bangladesh tour – a spot filled by Hilton Cartwright in Australia’s last series there.

Justin Langer floated his name as a contender for a Test spot earlier this summer, but selection chief Trevor Hohns has previously said they want to see him bowling again before he's considered.

Green, who snared two five-wicket hauls in his first five Shield games after first being picked as a 17-year-old specialist paceman, will not bowl again this season due to a stress fracture in his back.

Green became just the second Australian to have scored three Shield centuries and taken multiple five-wicket hauls before their 21st birthdays. The other player to have done it, Doug Walters, was however largely viewed as a part-timer rather than a frontline bowler during his 74-Test career.

Steve Smith had scored four first-class tons and taken a seven-wicket haul before turning 21 a month before his Test debut in 2010, but his 7-64 against South Australia earlier that year remains his only career five-for.

It leaves Green, regarded a genuine allrounder and who Ryan Harris has compared to Andrew Flintoff, as a truly rare prospect.

His story is all the more remarkable considering he averaged 16.75 in first-class cricket batting at No.8 and 9 before a breakout performance against Queensland in November, with back-to-back unbeaten innings of 87 and 121, sparked his avalanche of runs.

"I don't think anyone could have predicted it – not even myself," said Green. "I always knew I could hold a stick, it was just about getting that first score away really.

"I've got good friends and family to ground me. I'm just riding the wave to be honest, I know it's not going to be like this all the time.

"But while it's like this, I may as well enjoy it."

While Harris sees shades of Flintoff in him, it was another 2005 English Ashes hero in Kevin Pietersen who Green has been urged to watch by Cricket Australia youth batting coach Chris Rogers.

Green has unusually good balance at the crease for a man who stands 204cm and still growing into his body, and his proficiency at playing balls off his legs is a feature of his game.

His maiden KFC BBL campaign with the Perth Scorchers, in which he played 12 games as a specialist lower-order hitter, threatened to mess with his finely-honed technique against the red ball.

But while Green admits getting used to the swinging Dukes ball after two months of T20s took some adjusting, he has not lost any of his pre-Christmas form.

"I had a completely different role (in the BBL)," he explained. "I separated my batting (approaches) completely, I didn't keep anything the same when I went to the BBL.

"It's about getting a good striking position whereas in first-class cricket it's more a repetition of a good technique. It was a little bit challenging when I first got back but after a couple of hits it came back.

"In BBL you're trying to get your hands up high to get a good swing through, whereas in first-class cricket you're mainly keeping your hands low and trying to navigate movement and seam."