Nice to get monkey off my back: Green

AHMEDABAD: After being seventh time lucky and notching up his maiden century in the longest format, Australia all-rounder Cameron Green on Friday said that he feels like a Test cricketer now that the monkey is off his back.

The 23-year-old Green, playing his 20th Test, struck 114 to help Australia post 480 in its first innings on the second day of the fourth and last Test against India here. “You feel more like a Test cricketer when you have got that monkey off your back, so it is nice to tick that off in a way. It is so special,” said Green, who also has six Test half-centuries in his kitty.

“I think that I might have got a bit lucky; I got from 70 to 80 to 90 pretty quickly, so that probably helped a bit, not having too much time to think about it (the century). That is all.” The knock was special to him, given that his previous highest score was 84.

“Obviously (being unbeaten on 95) over the lunch break, the 40 minutes felt like an hour and 40 minutes. But, I was batting with Uzzy (Usman Khawaja’s nickname). The whole time, there was experience at the other end and he was batting beautifully. That helps a lot,” Green said.