Australia selection chief George Bailey confident Cam Green and Beau Webster can co-exist in same Test team

George Bailey is confident Cam Green can co-exist with Beau Webster in the same Test team, but Australia’s chief selector has remained guarded on the WA all-rounder’s prospects of bedding down a spot in the batting order.

After playing alongside each other in the final Test of last year’s Ashes, the all-rounders appear likely to line up alongside each other in a pair of Tests against Bangladesh in Darwin and Mackay next month after both being named in a 13-player squad.

Travis Head’s elevation to the top of the order against England created a vacancy at No.5 which was initially filled by Green, but the 27-year-old finished the summer at No.7 after a series of diminishing returns with the bat.

Although Usman Khawaja’s retirement has again left Australia’s No.5 slot vacant, Bailey turned down the chance to confirm Green — who has filled four different batting positions for Australia’s Test side across the last 12 months — would be carded there against Bangladesh.

But he was more forthcoming on the prospect of Green and Webster being deployed in tandem as Australia confront a gruelling run of as many as 21 Tests across the next 12 months.

“They have played together in the past and we think it can work,” Bailey said.

“Without knowing what the output required is going to be, the fact that they both can bowl will be, I’m sure, important across the next 18 months.

“Cam, in particular, has probably batted across a number of positions in that batting line-up, as have a number of other players within that team who we think can fill those middle order roles.

“I think some of the long-term discussions (around the batting order) are going to be, Travis had some great success at the top, does that mean that’s where it fits always.”

Australia’s next 12 months are slated to include visits from Bangladesh and New Zealand, the one-off Sesquicentennary Test against England, tours of South Africa and India, a potential World Test Championship final and an away Ashes series.

Suggestions Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc or Josh Hazlewood could be rested for the seemingly low-key Bangladesh assignment have proven unfounded, with each of the veteran fast bowlers named in the squad.

Starc played all five games of last summer’s Ashes and won the Compton-Miller Medal as its best player, while Cummins was sidelined in all but one due to a flare-up of back stress and Hazlewood did not feature at all due to Achilles and calf problems.

Bailey said it would not be realistic to expect the 33-year-old Cummins, 35-year-old Hazlewood or 36-year-old Starc to feature in every Test on Australia’s upcoming schedule.

“Our planning is that across the 21 Tests there will be different times when there will be different names and a different line-up,” Bailey said

“We’re not so much forecasting, in terms of mapping out that they’ll miss certain games. The conditions and the outcomes will dictate that a little bit as well.”

WA’s Josh Inglis shapes as the likely candidate to be the spare batter in the Bangladesh squad after failing to fully grasp the opportunities he was given in two Ashes appearances last year.

Fast bowlers Michael Neser and Brendan Doggett and off-spinner Todd Murphy are not part of the official squad, but have been participants in a pre-series camp.

Australia Test squad for series against Bangladesh

Pat Cummins (captain), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster.