Mumbai Indians' million-dollar man Cameron Green 'happy to bat wherever' he's needed

Right before the T20 World Cup last year, Australia, the then defending champions, travelled to India for a quick bilateral T20I series. The three matches were part of their preparations for the marquee event that Australia would host in October-November.

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With nothing riding on the series, Australia conducted an experiment. They asked their young allrounder Cameron Green to open innings alongside Aaron Finch.

Green aced the test.

Not only did Green, hyped as the next big thing in Australian cricket, introduce himself to the Indian crowd with a couple of blistering half-centuries, he also left the national selectors wondering if they committed a mistake by not including the lanky allrounder in their T20 World Cup squad.

It’s another matter that Green eventually made the cut as an injury replacement.

Those two innings in Mohali (61 off 30 balls) and Hyderabad (52 off 21) gave the Australian team management an indication of how to go about building a team for the future and where the precious talent of Green could best be utilised.

Those two fifties also served as his unofficial auditions for the IPL auction later that year. And it seemed the scouts were mighty impressed.