Green keen to re-learn bowling after whirlwind summer

Australia allrounder Cameron Green says he needs to "learn how to bowl" with his remodelled action ahead of next summer's Ashes series after years of being hampered by injury that have curbed his wicket-taking instincts.

Green admitted his head is still spinning from a whirlwind summer that saw him debut in both Test and one-day international cricket, but is already looking forward to another winter working with Western Australia's bowling coach Matt Mason.

It was his work with Mason at the WACA last winter during an extended off-season while the world was in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic that allowed Green to bed down a remodelled action that has – so far – seen the 21-year-old come through this summer injury free.

"I've had four seasons in a row where I've done a stress fracture, so the main goal was just to get through this year, then actually learn how to bowl instead of just looking to look after my body," Green told former Australia quick Mitchell Johnson on The Fast and The Curious podcast.

"I've been working on just trying to get through a year of cricket and preserve my body, instead of learning how to bowl.

"So hopefully next pre-season I can start learning what I do best."

Whether bowling is Green's better discipline or not is yet to be seen. Despite the stress fractures Green held his spot on his batting prowess alone for WA after scoring a breakthrough century against Queensland in November 2019.

While his batting potential was on display with a superb knock against the Indians in Sydney where he cashed in on a looming declaration and second new-ball to unfurl a series of shots in an innings of 84, his best with the ball is yet to be seen at international level.

Green went wicketless in his first Test series, admitting he had to bowl within himself, and sent down 44 overs across the four matches against India, with a tidy economy rate of 2.68. He started the Shield season as a batter only, before claiming two wickets for WA in 24 overs.

"You get into a Test arena, you get pretty excited and you want to go back to what normally works, it was pretty hard to hold back a little bit," Green said. "But Tim Paine and guys were all really good at letting me know what I was doing was good enough."

But with a first-class bowling average now of 25.30 (it was 21.72 before the Test summer) and 33 wickets, including a best of 6-30, the talent that had former Australia quick Ryan Harris call him Australia's answer to Andrew Flintoff is there.

"All I'm really trying to think about is getting through this year bowling-wise," Green said.

"Hopefully I can go into a pre-season where my body's actually in a good way so I can continue on from last year instead of trying to build back up.

"I probably won't go away, I'd love to stay in Perth and do another pre-season with Mase (Mason) and just get my body and action right."

Green, who revealed he holds an English passport, said a future stint in county cricket was in his sights, although not in 2021.

Green spent a full 14 days in home quarantine back in Perth following the Test series, having been in various biosecure bubbles since the start of the Shield season in October, an eye-opening experience having never previously been away from home for more than a week.

"Three or four months away from friends and family, I'd never done that before," Green said. "It's nice to know it's never going to get harder than that.

"If you ever go away on a Test tour it's never going to be longer than three or four months, you can always come back to Perth and see your friends and family.

"It was the first time I'd ever been away for longer than a week because for Shield you just go for a week, play a game and maybe a one-dayer and you're back within two weeks at max.

"It was definitely challenging but it's nice to know it'll never get harder than that."

Western Australia resume their bid to end a 21-season long drought in the Marsh Sheffield Shield next week, when they host the South Australia Redbacks at the WACA from February 25.