'I'd like to probably err on the side of preparing him through red ball. We know how good a white-ball player he is so you put a priority on what it looks like next summer.'
All-rounder Cameron Green may be spared white ball duties for Australia to focus on his red ball game ahead of the Test series against India in the next home summer, coach Andrew McDonald said.
Green played Sheffield Shield cricket with Western Australia in the run-up to the ongoing New Zealand Test series and said the red ball preparation had helped set him up for his match-winning 174 not out in the Wellington opener.
McDonald said Green may be given a similar lead-in to the five-test series against India and be rested from scheduled ODIs and T20Is against Pakistan that start the home summer.
"He has become an all-three format player and we thought his greatest challenge was flipping between the formats. Other players can go (more readily) from one-day international cricket into Test cricket, and it's probably the more experienced players who have done it over a period of time.
"It is a big decision to leave anyone out of international cricket when they are potentially in the best eleven, so I am glad he embraced that when we had that conversation with him, and the return on it is pretty immediate."
"The next stress point on that will be next summer, leading into the Indian Test series where we have got Pakistan in ODI cricket and T20 cricket."
"I'd like to probably err on the side of preparing him through red ball. We know how good a white-ball player he is so you put a priority on what it looks like next summer," McDonald told reporters.
"The white-ball cricket's important, but that Test summer's important, so I think with the results he's had (at Wellington) he'll probably come to us and say, 'Can you give us a couple of Shield games before the first Test against India?'"
Australia beat the Black Caps by 172 runs at the Basin Reserve, the margin of victory almost matching Green's first innings knock, which was the second hundred of his Test career.
Green followed up his century with a vital 34 as Australia were skittled for 164 in their second innings.
Wellington cemented Green's ownership of the number four slot long held by one of the nation's greatest batters in Steve Smith, who now opens the batting with Usman Khawaja following the retirement of David Warner from the format.
McDonald views Green as a long-term player for number four position in Tests.
"His preferred position, as we have seen in Shield cricket, is number four and we think he can be a long-term option there. This is a big step towards that. The conversations are that he is a quality player, and the statistics that everyone was looking at early in his (international) career probably did not reflect the player that was in front of us," said McDonald.
