Credit: Google
What must have a cricketer done to have become a beacon of consistency in the game's most exciting and hypercompetitive format despite having just played 18 international contests for his country? But then not everyone is all-rounder Cameron Green, who has played, as on date, just 18 T20Is for Australia, six of which, have thus far resulted in either a fifty or a fifty-plus score.
Doing basic schoolboy math suggests that every third of Cameron Green's T20I outings with the bat lead to a personal batting milestone and in effect, up the ante of Australia's attack over its opponents. Which in this case was, rather regrettably for the Caribbean fans, the West Indies cricket team.
So how was that and what exactly happened?
Just recently, not only did Australia rub salt into West Indies' wounds having thrashed the two-time T20 World Cup winners at their own home in T20Is on the back of a rather shambolic 27 all out in the final Test match that happened just weeks ago at Jamaica. The chief destructor for Australia and one that enforced the wounds was Cameron Green.
He now holds a world record that actually deserves a greater mention than what is currently coming its way with much of the cricketing world's attention centred on the India versus England exploits.
Cameron Green ended the five-match T20I tally with no fewer than 205 runs. That wasn't just a fine showing with the bat; it was a brutal assault waged with great power and unbelievable intensity in the Caribbean.
Three of Green's most recent T20I scores, culminated in a half century. In two of these three fifties, he remained unbeaten and was the man standing there on the 22 yards for Australia to take his team over the line.
In some cases, he was down with the number seven of his side. On other occasions, he paired alongside a newfound asset to the Australian line-up: the destructor called Mitch Owen.
Cameron Green's stats in West Indies T20I series
Cameron Green's recent T20I scores versus the West Indies, wilting under immense pressure, read the following:
32, 55 not out, 11, 56 not out, and 51.
If that is not a mark of great consistency, then what is?
In a team where there's no dearth of choicest, expansive big hitters such as Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell and of course, Mitch Marsh, Cameron Green's rise is akin to a fire-breathing dragon that only leads to destruction in the path of its opponents.
So dominant and fearless has he been in the most recent contests that it was pitiable to even consider the West Indies as the six-hitting giants for Green, in himself, all by himself, seemed enough. His overall T20I-run tally is closing in on 500 runs, but it's his very Chris Gayle and Andre Russell-esque strike rate that takes away the cheery.
At the moment, it is touching 158. If that is not impressive for a young cricketer whose best days lie ahead, then what is?
