Sheffield Shield: Cam Green to return for Western Australia but no certainty to bowl against South Australia

Cam Green will take the field as one of two big ins for Western Australia this week in the Sheffield Shield as they hunt their first victory of the season against South Australia, but he is not a certainty to bowl. Australian coach Andrew McDonald revealed the all-rounder was put through a bowling session on Sunday as he goes through the steps of proving he is ready to bowl in next month’s Ashes series off the back of last year’s spinal surgery. Green bowled four overs in WA’s opening shield contest, claiming a wicket, but was withdrawn from the triumphant One-Day International series against India with side soreness. Australian physio Nick Jones, who also filled the role at the WACA before taking the international job, is in Perth with Green assessing how he pulled up after Sunday’s sessions to decide if he will bowl against South Australia. However, even if he doesn’t bowl in the match, McDonald said Green would continue to build his loads in the nets with an eye on the fourth round of shield matches. “Some positive news for him. He resumed bowling on the back of that slight side awareness that he had that ruled him out of the first two one-dayers, so I’ll get an update today of how he’s pulled up from yesterday’s bowl,” McDonald said on Monday morning. “That will be a decision going into shield game three, what that looks like. “If it’s not shield game three that he bowls in, he will be bowling in some capacity in and around that game, and then he will be really excited about what shield four looks like. “He’s ready to go as a bat, and the second part of that is what bowling capabilities he will have. That’s yet to be decided. It’s more about how he pulled up yesterday. “Nick Jones is on the ground in Perth, which is an advantage to us.” Green returned to the Test arena in June as a specialist batter and performed well in July’s tour of the West Indies, stepping up to the No.3 role. Young gun Cooper Connolly will also play just his ninth first class match fresh off a breakout ODI series against India. Connolly hit his maiden international half century to hand Australia their first ODI series victory in four attempts last week. Ashton Agar and Sam Fanning make way for Green and Connolly while South Australia have confirmed the return of quick Brendan Doggett. While Mitch Marsh won’t feature in any shield action ahead of the first Ashes Test in Perth, given he is Australia’s T20 captain and is in the midst of a series against World No.1 India, McDonald has kept the door open for the West Aussie to face England later in the series. Marsh has previously ruled himself out of the Ashes, but the Australian coach said he felt the 34-year-old was batting as well as he had in recent years. “We would be comfortable picking someone, and if you want to put a name to it, Mitch Marsh, out of white-ball cricket, if we felt like that was going to benefit the Test team,” he said. “He’s the captain of the white-ball team, and it’s very hard for him to sort of vacate and balance out Test preparation if he were to be in the window for that. “We feel like he’s batting as well as he has for a long period of time, and when he got dropped last summer, I think he was one of our highest averages from Headingley to that point. “We still haven’t given up on Mitch Marsh’s Test career.” Marsh has been in sensational form through one-day and T20 cricket and will have two shield clashes before the Big Bash and during the Ashes to stay sharp should Australia need his services against England.