Top order still 'unsettled' after tough 10 days in the Caribbean

Australian coach says performances at start of Sheffield Shield season will help shape side for first Ashes Test

Australia entered the Caribbean tour hoping to bed down their opening combination, but coach Andrew McDonald admits it remains "unsettled" as the Test team turns their attention to the Ashes following their 3-0 sweep of West Indies.

Australia's two openers, Usman Khawaja and Sam Konstas, were their only top seven batters not to hit half-centuries during three Tests that produced some of the most difficult batting conditions in recent memory, where the combined average for both teams (17.68) was the fourth lowest in history for any bilateral series of three or more matches.

Khawaja's best knock of 47 came in the first innings of the first Test in Barbados, finishing with 117 runs at an average of 19.50, while Konstas' top score of 25 in the first innings of the second Test was half his total for the series in which he averaged 8.33.

McDonald said he sees Khawaja playing a part against England during the home summer, while for Konstas, his performances for NSW in the Sheffield Shield will be crucial if he's to retain his place in the side.

That opens the door for others such as Marnus Labuschagne, who was dropped for the West Indies series, as well as previous Test openers Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris and Matthew Renshaw to push their case at the start of the domestic summer.

Nathan McSweeney and Jake Weatherald, who hit 94 and 54 respectively in Australia A's first four-day clash with Sri Lanka A in Darwin, could also be in the frame.

"I think it leaves (Konstas) where everyone else is in terms of Shield cricket at the start of the season," McDonald told SEN radio after Australia's 176-run victory in the third Test in Jamaica.

"We're not going to shy away from the fact that will be big for certain individuals to go about their work, put some scores on the board, and then for us to look at what we need against England.

"It feels as though we're still a little bit unsettled in terms of what our combinations look like at the top of the order with the way that the performances have gone here (against West Indies).

"There's a lot of cricket still to come to be able to gather that information.

"Shield cricket, it feels like it's going to be the same as the start of last year where the microscope will be there for certain individuals and what happens in those games will have a great connection to the first Test in Perth.

"If the performances are at a certain level, I still think that there's always going to be discussion and debate as to what our top order looks like in Australia against England; it's a totally different opposition, they play differently, and the surfaces are different."

But despite it being a difficult tour for Konstas, McDonald said three more Test matches under his belt was a "massive positive" for a player Australia believe has a big future.

"He'll take away some information that will accelerate his growth forward," McDonald said.

"The exposure across the series is going to create some great opportunities for him to go away and reflect and start to gather what it looks like for him.

"He's a highly talented player.

"His skill set over time, I think we will see the real Sam Konstas and at the moment he's juggling with his aggressive nature, he's juggling his technique and the way he really wants to go about playing it.

"But when you've got up and down and seaming wickets, it can force you into those corners a lot quicker than some surfaces that are batter friendly, which we were (initially) expecting to get here.

"We believe he's got more layers than just being that ultra-aggressive, almost what you call a disruptor at the top of the order, and hence why those two Tests (against India last summer) then extended out to the WTC (final) and then some opportunities in the West Indies.

"He's had a small setback here in difficult conditions and so did the rest of the top order as well.

"We see him as a player that we'll be using going forward, it will just be a matter of when."

McDonald added the nature of the surfaces across the three Tests, as well as the challenge of the pink Dukes ball in the series finale under lights at Sabina Park, made it really difficult to "make accurate judgments on both batting units".

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While no Australian batter scored a century in the series for the first time since the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, McDonald said the scores his batters were able to deliver – which saw them hit eight half-centuries to West Indies' one – were significant contributions in the context of low scoring games.

"Cameron Green was outstanding in the pair of forties that he got in that last Test match," McDonald said.

"You never know how a couple of innings are going to age across the game, but those contributions at number three arguably set up the game for Australia, which is really difficult to say that a couple of forties can do that, but that's the nature of the conditions that we played in.

"We've got great belief that Cam Green can bat anywhere in the order … and it was a was a nice step forward for him at number three."

Whether Green stays at No.3 when he resumes bowling – which is his target ahead of the home summer following back surgery last October – is another discussion, but McDonald believes both he and Beau Webster could co-exist in the same Test team.

"We'll have options once that happens," he said of Green's pending return to the bowling crease.

"If he's nailed down number three and it looks like that's his position and we can settle that down, then we'll head in that direction.

"Would that look like some slightly lower bowling loads across the summer? Potentially, that team would then maybe look like it has Webster and Green in it, which will be a debate moving forward.

"But Beau Webster is holding his own as a bat only, and speaking of guys getting runs in tricky conditions, he's almost made an art of it in first-class cricket and he's transferred that into Test cricket, which is great to see as a mature player.

"So, Cam Green's bowling coming back online gives us a great problem, but first and foremost, he's a batter and that's the way we've used him across the journey."

Green and Josh Inglis, who was part of the XI for the first Test in Barbados when Steve Smith was injured, are the only two who played in the Test series sticking around for the five T20 internationals against West Indies, with the rest on their way home to reload for a blockbuster Test summer against England.

"The eye will really shift once the Shield season starts and we start to get performances coming in and working out how we want to shape our team," McDonald said.

"There will be physical block to get our players right as well, and that's full credit to the quicks and the medical team, their ability year in, year out to present those four bowlers in particular in the shape that you need to get through a summer.

"They're going into a bit of a lay off at the moment.

"Josh Hazlewood will play that Top End series (against South Africa), Mitch (Starc) and Pat (Cummins) will miss that to start rebuilding their bodies.

"They've had some things over time that have potentially had the ability to get worse so if we can get all those to the position we need, (with a) fully fit squad, then we can start making decisions from there."

Qantas Tour of the West Indies

First Test: Australia won by 159 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 133 runs

Third Test: Australia won by 176 runs

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

West Indies Test squad: Roston Chase (c), Jomel Warrican (vc), Kevlon Anderson, Kraigg Brathwaite, John Campbell, Keacy Carty, Justin Greaves, Shai Hope, Tevin Imlach, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Johann Layne, Mikyle Louis, Anderson Phillip, Jayden Seales

First T20I: July 20, Kingston, Jamaica (July 21, 10am AEST)

Second T20I: July 22, Kingston, Jamaica (July 23, 10am AEST)

Third T20I: July 25, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 26, 9am AEST)

Fourth T20I: July 26, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 27, 9am AEST)

Fifth T20I: July 28, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 29, 9am AEST)

West Indies T20 squad: Shai Hope (c), Jewel Andrew, Jediah Blades, Roston Chase, Matthew Forde (St Kitts only), Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Gudakesh Motie, Rovman Powell, Andre Russell (Kingston only), Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd

Australia's T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshius, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Owen, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa

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