"That Test summer's important" - Andrew McDonald wants to put Cameron Green on ice ahead of India series

Australia head coach Andrew McDonald has strongly hinted at resting Cameron Green for the white-ball series against Pakistan next summer for the red-ball leg against India.

India will head to Australia for a five-match Test series to defend the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Australia have not beaten India in a Test series for a decade, including the last two at home in the 2018-19 and 2020-21 legs.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, McDonald expects Green to play more Shield games ahead of the series against India, given the preparation helped for the New Zealand tour.

"We felt that by keeping Cam in one format for a period of time gave him the best chance, and that won't always be the case with everyone. The next stress point on that will be next summer, leading into the Indian Test series where we've got Pakistan in ODI cricket and T20 cricket. The white-ball cricket's important, but geez 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?'."

It was in the 2020-21 series against India that Green made his Test debut. The youngster's coming-of-age innings has been the recent unbeaten 174 against the Kiwis in Wellington, allowing Australia to win by 172 runs.

"We think he can be a long-term option there" - Andrew McDonald on Cameron Green's batting spot

McDonald believes promoting Green to the No.4 spot has been the greatest move, adding:

"His preferred position, as we've 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's a quality player, and the statistics that everyone was looking at early in his (international) career probably didn't reflect the player that was in front of us."

The second Test between Australia and New Zealand begins in Christchurch on March 8.