Australia have suffered a major blow ahead of their crucial Test series against India, with news that star all-rounder Cameron Green will undergo surgery on his injured back and be sidelined for up to six months.

Green hurt his back during Australia’s white-ball tour of the United Kingdom last month and subsequent scans found a stress fracture in the affected area.

Cricket Australia (CA) released a brief statement indicating Green had a “unique defect in an adjacent area to the fracture that is believed to be contributing to the injury”, with the 25-year-old to undergo surgery in an attempt to stabilise the injury and reduce the risk of future recurrence.

It means Green will miss the five-match series against India that will be crucial to Australia’s ICC World Test Championship defence, while he is unlikely to recover in time for the Test tour to Sri Lanka and ICC Champions Trophy event in February next year.

Green played a crucial role in helping Australia to their first World Test Championship final at The Oval last year and had been earmarked to bat in the important No.4 position following the promotion of veteran batter Steve Smith to opener.

Smith set for middler-order return

The loss of Green could see Smith return to his preferred position at second drop, while Australia may need to find another bowling option for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in the absence of their star all-rounder.

Australia selection chair George Bailey on Monday confirmed that Smith would not open during the Border-Gavaskar series, meaning the reigning World Test Championship winners will need to find a new opener to partner Usman Khawaja at the top of their order against India.

“(Captain) Pat (Cummins), (coach) Andrew (McDonald) and Steve Smith had been having ongoing conversations, separate to the untimely injury to Cameron (Green). Steve had expressed a desire to move back down from that opening position, and Pat and Andrew have confirmed that he will be dropping back down the order for the summer. So, yeah, clearly we’ve got a No. 4 spot to fill and an opening spot to fill,” Bailey said on Monday.

Bailey also said that it’s not yet confirmed whether Smith will bat at No.4 when the first Test starts in Perth on November 22, and instead left it on Cummins and Andrew to take a call. He, however, indicated that Smith would have moved regardless of Green’s injury but he would not divulge how they would have configured the top six had Green been fit to play.

“Part of those discussions have been had and what it might look like. But I guess once you do get moving parts, a lot of those conversations become null and void,” he said.

Australia on the hunt for a new opener 

With Smith dropping down the order, and Green out of the equation, Australia are in the hunt for a new opening combination. Some of the top contenders to partner the veteran Khawaja are  Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft and New South Wales’ teen sensation Sam Konstas — all three named in the 17-man Australia A squad that will face India A in two four-day games starting on October 31 and November 7.

Meanwhile, Matt Renshaw, who was the reserve batter in the Test squad for Australia’s last two series against West Indies and New Zealand following David Warner’s retirement, was not named in the A squad but Bailey said that the selectors are following him in Shield cricket (Australia’s domestic red-ball tournament).

“No, we still really like Matt’s ability to play. As far as Australia A selection goes, part of the process around that is trying to identify opportunities that may come around in the short term for any opportunities that that might pop up, but also making sure that we do keep an eye on developing opportunities for those players who may become important in different roles in the future as well,” Bailey said.

“So whilst there’s an Australia A squad there, I think Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Nic Maddinson as three examples are guys who we’ll continue to watch really closely in Shield cricket,” he added.