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Green eyes winter journey to Ashes dream

EXCLUSIVE: An unexpected brush with quarantine has given Cameron Green ample time to plot his path towards a blockbuster summer of cricket

From the window of the room at home in Perth that is Cameron Green's world for the next nine days, he can visualise – if not quite see – the embarkation point for his journey to next summer's Ashes campaign against England.

It begins at the WACA Ground where Green will work on a comprehensive training program mapped out for him by coaches and fitness mentors, and endorsed by the national selection panel who see the 22-year-old as integral to defending the urn.

But while his path to the first Vodafone Ashes Test at the Gabba from December 8 was all-but confirmed at last week's strategy and planning session for the national men's team squad on the Gold Coast, it's the quick interstate dash to that meeting that's temporarily stalled the all-rounder's progress.

Due to the current wave of COVID-19 infections across Australia and WA's hard-line approach to returning travellers, Green finds himself strictly confined to quarters with only an exercise bike and a few free weights to help him honour his winter training regime.

"I tend to really enjoy the first two days, but then the next 12 go by pretty slow," Green told cricket.com.au about his latest round of enforced quarantine after a summer of regular isolation from the wider community.

"I can go out the front and chat with my family from across the other side of the gate, but I can't actually be next to them.

"It's not great, but it's the times we're in … and I'm getting used to it."

Best of Cameron Green from the 2020-21 Sheffield Shield

While the 2020-21 season was memorably different in any number of ways due to the pandemic, it was even more eye-opening to Green whose blistering batting form in the early rounds of the Marsh Sheffield Shield led to his ODI and Test debuts barely a fortnight apart last December.

Not only did he step up to the heightened competitive level against India, he did so in the atypical environment of bio-secure bubbles that meant his introduction to international cricket was like few debutants before him.

In the lead-up to his much-anticipated arrival in Australia colours, quiet concerns were expressed about his physical endurance given his history of back injuries that plague most up-and-coming pace bowlers.

But it was his mind that was most sorely in need of salving come season's end.

"I wouldn't say my body needed a break, it was more mentally because you get pretty fatigued and there's not too many outlets from cricket, really," said Green whose principal extra-curricular focus now is year one of the commerce degree he's undertaken with Perth's Curtin University.

"Cricket Australia do their best by giving us a team room to relax in, giving you a bit of space and cooking your food for you so you don’t have to worry about that.

"But if you're involved around cricket the whole time it's tough to get away from it, so you're pretty mentally cooked by the end (of the summer).

"I'm not too much of a golfer or a surfer, but any way you can get away from cricket is probably a good thing.

"I've had a good couple of months off, but I got pretty itchy to get back into it by the end so I'm ready to go."

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When he slips quarantine next week, Green will throw himself into the winter program that's been plotted for him with a focus on technical and strategic changes to his bowling as well as a few minor tweaks to the batting that yielded him an average of 33.71 and highest score of 84 from his maiden Test campaign.

The issues incumbent with interstate travel means he'll do that work at the WACA with former WA and UK county seamer Matt Mason overseeing the bowling tweaks, while ex-Test players Adam Voges, Geoff Marsh and Beau Casson will supervise the batting program.

"That's pretty much what the coach (Justin Langer) and the selectors told me," Green said of his winter schedule forged in consultation with the Australia brainstrust.

"They said 'we'd like you to stay in Perth and just get ready for a big summer, to give you the opportunity to look ahead at what's coming up' because it's going to be a really exciting summer."

For a while it seemed Green might be spending the off-season in Australia limited-overs colours after he was added (along with Ben McDermott, Dan Christian, Ashton Turner, Wes Agar and Nathan Ellis) to the preliminary squad for the current Qantas Tour to the West Indies and the Bangladesh series scheduled to follow.

Those other five late additions were on the flight to St Lucia that left Australia last Monday, but Green missed the trip despite the unavailability of fellow allrounders Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell and top-order batters Steve Smith and David Warner.

He acknowledges that his comparative inexperience in white-ball cricket – he's played just 13 domestic one-day games and as many BBL appearances on top of his sole ODI – probably counted against him in final selection.

But he holds aspirations to regularly represent Australia in all three international formats, and claims he would "definitely" have been ready to play in the upcoming ODI and T20I series against West Indies had he made the touring party.

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"Being in that environment, you start to learn pretty quickly because you're watching the best train and play every day," Green said.

"So you can learn by seeing what they're doing right, and trying to copy them.

"I don't think I've really had the experience in other formats yet, but I'm sure that will come in the next couple of years as I start to play a bit more.

"All through junior ranks, you get so used to playing red-ball and long-format cricket you don't get the chance to practice white-ball too much.

"But definitely in the future I would like to (play all three formats), I think I just have to gain that experience first."

Green's immediate future as a Test player is far less speculative, with national selection chair Trevor Hohns predicting he "will play an important role for Australian cricket after his impressive breakout summer" when announcing the national men's contract list last April.

He is expected to play an integral part in Australia's Ashes strategy, with his inclusion in the top six of the batting order empowering selectors to field three front-line quicks as well as spinner Nathan Lyon while knowing Green can also provide some more-than-handy overs of pace.

The prospect of a maiden Ashes campaign has Green even more anxious to end his stint in quarantine and return to the WACA nets, with the scheduled start of the men's Test summer (against Afghanistan) less than five months away and tickets on sale from Monday.

Growing up in a sports-centric family – his younger sister, Bella, is planning to return to the USA soon to continue her college basketball career – he recalls the special significance of tuning into Ashes Tests at his Perth home.

"It's the pinnacle of all Australian cricketers I guess, you just want to play in an Ashes series and especially win one," Green said.

"I can remember waking up early to watch it when it was in other parts of Australia, or staying up late to watch it when they were playing in England so I've got some very fond memories."

But his favourite memory stems from the afternoon in 2013 when, as an impressionable 14-year-old, he was sat at the rear of the WACA's Inverarity Stand on the penultimate day of that summer's third Test when England began their second innings.

"I was at the WACA when Ryan Harris bowled that first ball to Alistair Cook, so that was a pretty special moment," he recalled.

"I was sitting at the very top of that stand, behind the bowler so I had a pretty good view of it.

"When I think of the Ashes, that's probably the series that jumps out at me."

Strong competition between touring glovemen: Carey

With little other than occasional spin and strength sessions – supplemented by irregular sojourns into study - to fill his remaining days in quarantine, Green is looking forward to tuning into the start of Australia's white-ball campaign in the Caribbean that kicks off in St Lucia next Friday.

But despite their impending arrival in Australia later this year, he's not planning to pay such close attention to Joe Root's England Test outfit when they begin their five-Test home series against India next month.

Rather, he'll leave the technical dissection of what England's batters and bowlers are doing ahead of the Ashes to the Australia men's team data analysts charged with scrutinising that level of detail.

"But I normally have a pretty keen eye to watch at least the highlights to see what the best players in the world are doing, what they do right and then you try to emulate it if you can," he added.

What has piqued his interest, however, is the prospect of expanding his cricket knowledge by playing a season (or part thereof) in the UK county system when his schedule allows and Cricket Australia's coaching and medical staff deem it feasible.

Green holds a UK passport by dint of his mother's British birth, resisted the temptation to follow a number of Australia players to the northern summer this year in the interests of refining elements of his game at home.

But he is keen to gain experience in English conditions before the next scheduled Ashes summer there in 2023, with next winter looming as the only realistic time to maximise that opportunity.

"I've had a thought about perhaps going over there next season, but that will probably be dictated by the sort of summer we've had here and depending on how I'm going," said Green whose only overseas playing experiences are an under-16 trip to Sri Lanka and National Performance Squad visits to Chennai in India.

"I speak to a lot of guys and they talk about how good it is to have that experience before you go over there (to play international cricket in the UK), or at least they wished they had that experience before they went over there.

"So that's probably something I'll think about."

And thinking is pretty much all he has scope to do over the ensuing week and a bit.

Tickets for the 2021-22 season will go on sale here on Monday July 5 from 2pm AEST.

2021-22 Men's International Season

Vodafone Men's Test v Afghanistan

Nov 27 – Dec 1: Test match, Blundstone Arena

Vodafone Men's Ashes v England

Dec 8-12: First Test, The Gabba

Dec 16-20: Second Test, Adelaide Oval

Dec 26-30: Third Test, MCG

Jan 5-9: Fourth Test, SCG

Jan 14-18: Fifth Test, Perth Stadium

Dettol Men's ODI & T20 Series v New Zealand

Jan 30: First ODI, Perth Stadium

Feb 2: Second ODI, Blundstone Arena

Feb 5: Third ODI, SCG

Feb 8: T20, Manuka Oval

Dettol Men's T20 Series v Sri Lanka

Feb 11: First T20, SCG

Feb 13: Second T20, The Gabba

Feb 15: Third T20, Metricon Stadium

Feb 18: Fourth T20, Adelaide Oval

Feb 20: Fifth T20, MCG