NEWS
Follow UsThe race to open the innings for Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against India is well and truly on. Australia briefly tried partnering Usman Khawaja with Steven Smith, but this time around, they have confirmed that they will go in with a new opener as Smith has been asked to get back to his usual number four position in the batting order.
Nathan McSweeney is certainly a firm contender to make his Test debut in Perth, but with a gritty 74 in the second unofficial Test against India A in Melbourne, Marcus Harris, too, has thrown his ring in the hat.
"I think, externally, obviously, this game was getting built up a lot, which is fair enough. I feel like I've been batting well, but so have lots of other people," Harris said at the end of Day Two.
"So if I get called upon, I feel like I'm ready to go, and if I don't, then so be it. I feel pretty well-equipped. I think maybe if I was in this position 12 months ago, I probably wouldn't have been able to perform the way I have at the start of this season. My results last year probably said that. So I've been proud of that."
With selector George Bailey watching, Harris did no harm to his chances of playing his first Test in nearly three years. Harris is the only player to have opened in both the unofficial Tests so far. In the first game in Mackay, he partnered Sam Konstas, while in the current game, Nathan McSweeney accompanied him at the top.
"They just said that I'll open in the first game and we're not really sure what's going to happen with the second game," Harris said of his talk with the selectors ahead of the India A games.
"So I don't know if that was the plan. You'd have to ask them, to be honest. You never know. Like last year, for example, we had the bat-off in Canberra, and they picked Renners [Matt Renshaw], who was batting at three. So, yeah, I don't know."
Over the years, Harris has known how to curtail his strokeplay, according to the situation. He credits his Victoria head coach, Chris Rogers, for that.
"If the wicket's doing a little bit, [he said] you don't always have to look to hit it for four, look to hit it for two. And it was just something simple that sort of resonated with me a little bit," Harris said.
"I think a lot of the times when you do well on wickets like that, you actually spend a lot of time down the other end."
The five-match BGT is set to get underway from November 22 onwards, with the first Test in Perth.
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