'Remarkable skillset': Aussies floored by rookie Green

As Australia's players sat around their Gabba changeroom and toasted their success in the opening Vodafone Ashes Test, talk between a quartet of the team's most experienced members turned to its youngest, Cameron Green.

Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc have played 297 Tests between them, yet the bowling of Green in just his fifth Test was enough to have this grizzled group of thirty-somethings as excited as primary schoolers.

"We were all saying how remarkable his skillset is," said Lyon of the 22-year-old Western Australian, who took two wickets today, including the prized scalp of England captain Joe Root with a lovely away-swinger.

"Just to be square of the wicket, I'm pretty used to seeing Josh, Pat (Cummins) and 'Starcy' hit the wicket, and the pace and bounce that they get, but I was blown away with Greeny's rhythm, and the belief he came in (to the match) with, just to whack the pitch and get something out of it.

"It was absolutely remarkable. I'm proper excited about his skillset.

"His belief will keep growing day by day, training session by training session, and Test by Test, and he's going to be an unbelievable asset for Australian cricket for a long period of time, hopefully."

Green was out first ball on day two when he left a ball from Ollie Robinson that tailed in and collected his off stump, but the 22-year-old, who averages 51.66 in first-class cricket and has already piled on eight hundreds, has shown enough in the Marsh Sheffield Shield to be viewed as a long-term number four in the Test set-up.

Green (12-3-23-2) returned to have Chris Woakes caught behind and in a clinical performance with the ball, the two-metre tall right-armer showed the pace (at one point hitting 142.6kph) and bounce that has already earned him a reputation as being a tough proposition.

Cummins too, was enthused by his young charge, whom he has seen work through the same stress fracture injuries that the skipper himself overcame, to become an exceptional all-round product.

"I hadn't seen a lot of him in Shield cricket but everything I was hearing was positive," the captain said.

"There was talk about him being one of the next best quicks, really hard work (to face), but then he started churning out hundreds.

"So it's huge for us having not only an allrounder who bowls a bit, but he's a genuine fourth quick … bowls 140kph, (gets) bounce and can swing the ball.

"We just really wanted to get him into the game, get his first Test wicket, and he's away now. He's a huge asset for us – still firmly in our top six batters but to have someone who can give us genuine wicket-taking overs, it's great."

Root said England would be better for having faced Green, who was the only unknown with the ball coming into this series for the visitors.

"I think he bowled well throughout the whole game," the Englishman said. "For the majority of it we managed him pretty well, as well.

"(He is) slightly different to the other guys so just trying to get used to him – it's nice to have that in the bank now ahead of the rest of the series.

"We knew he was a talented player and his performances in state cricket and at the start of his international career have been pretty good. We'll be better for having faced him."

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: Australia won by nine wickets

Second Test: December 16-20, Adelaide Oval

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena