The Ashes: West Australian Cam Green opens up on struggling home form with his spot in Test team on the line

West Australian Cam Green admits he feels extra pressure playing in Australia as selectors face a major call on one of their biggest investments. Green scored 17 and 19 in the two-day Boxing Day Test and has come under fire for a series of bizarre and frustrating dismissals. He ran himself out trying to take a radical single in the first innings and was caught behind, slashing at a short and wide ball from Ben Stokes in the second innings. The all-rounder also sent down just five balls in the match. It comes after he was demoted from No.5 to No.7 in the order and leaves his spot under intense scrutiny ahead of the final Ashes Test in Sydney next week, particularly with reliable all-rounder Beau Webster waiting in the wings. But 26-year-old Green is one of Australian cricket’s biggest investments of the past decade and he is the only player in the team aged under 30. He has also had the unsettling experience of batting in every position between No.3 and No.8 in the batting order since the start of 2024. Green conceded he hadn’t posted the type of scores he was chasing in this series. He has scored 112 runs at an average of 18.66. “It’s OK, not the runs I would have wanted this series, but as a team we only had one goal and that was to win the Ashes, so it didn’t matter who put their hand up,” he told the ABC on Sunday. The Subiaco-Floreat product has scored two Test centuries from 57 attempts and neither of them have been in Australia, which ramps up constant speculation around his future with the heightened focus of a home summer. He posted his maiden century in Ahmedabad during the 2023 tour of India and his second won Australia a Test in Wellington early last year. “Probably at the start of my career I was really nervous playing at home,” Green said. “There is more expectation, a home crowd, and I really took a while to get used to that. “I feel like I have got over that hurdle, so maybe I’ve just been relaxed on the road to start my career, a little bit less eyeballs and it just happens to be that way at the moment. “You might say the wickets haven’t been amazing at home for the last few years.” WA batting great Simon Katich led the criticism of Green after his second-innings dismissal on Saturday, labelling his batting “predetermined rubbish”. He also copped heat for a reckless shot under lights in the Brisbane Test when he backed away to the leg side and attempted to blaze a Brydon Carse ball through the covers. But stand-in captain Steve Smith backed him to turn it around. “Greeny, he’s had a few nice starts as well, just hasn’t been able to go on with it and get the results he’s been after, but we know he’s a quality player,” Smith said. “He’s done it against some good oppositions in the past and hopefully he can turn it around.” Webster, the most likely man to replace Green if he was dropped, has been released from the Test squad and will play for Hobart Hurricanes against Melbourne Renegades on Monday night before heading to Sydney to rejoin the squad.