Cameron Green has just come back from a six-month injury and will bat at No. 3 in his first Test back ©Getty
When is a Test No. 3 not a Test No. 3? When they are Wiaan Mulder and Cameron Green. Yet Mulder and Green have been picked to bat in the pivotal position for South Africa and Australia in the WTC final at Lord's, which starts on Wednesday (June 11).
Mulder has had 29 Test innings, 23 of them at No. 7, three one place lower, and one above. At No. 3? Two. Green has batted 43 times in Tests - 28 at No. 6, eight at No. 7, six with two wickets down, and one in fifth position. He has yet to sit padded up waiting for one of the Aussies' openers to be dismissed.
No. 3 was the preserve of Donald Bradman, Wally Hammond, Viv Richards, Kumar Sangakkara, Ricky Ponting, Ian Chappell, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis and VVS Laxman. It is a place for players who have the skill and temperament to straddle the great divide between batting with an opener and with the middle order, and to make it look if not effortless then not arduous.
No. 3 is not a place for compromise. Yet that is what both teams have done in this case. Mulder's bowling is his strong suit. Green is a batting all-rounder, but his bowling is central to Australia's gameplan.
Mulder is seen as a similar bowler to Dane Paterson, who has missed out despite taking 13 wickets in two home Tests against Sri Lanka and Pakistan in December. Instead, Lungi Ngidi has been selected to play his first match in whites since August 2024.
Shukri Conrad's choice could be seen as a gamble. Ngidi has played 33 first-class matches, but has bowled 20 or more overs in an innings only four times and never in the same match.
"It's one of the tougher decisions that have been made," Bavuma said on Tuesday. "We've seen what Patto did for us at the end of last season. But I think it was [made] more from a tactical point of view, probably because we get more pace from Lungi. He's taller as well.
"Mulder is quite new in that position. But having played with him [for the Lions] and having seen the way he's grown in the last two years in the red-ball format, it's about giving him a lot more confidence. We need to keep backing him and allowing him to do what he does best."
Before it was revealed that he would bat at No. 3, Green was asked if doing so would be a departure from what he was used to. "Not at all," he said. "You grow up through your whole career - you speak to anyone here - and they've definitely batted in the top three or four throughout their junior career. I was no different; batting at No. 3 till you get to first-class cricket. I've got absolutely no issues batting at three."
Green has had 105 first-class innings, 34 of them at No. 4. He has batted at No. 3 at that level once - he scored 15 for Western Australia in a Sheffield Shield match against Queensland at the Gabba in November 2021.
What does a real No.3 reckon it takes to do the job?
"You have to be able to handle a new ball, because most of the time at No. 3 you end up coming in pretty early," Amla, who batted in that spot in 174 of his 215 Test innings and averaged 49.95 there, said on Monday. "You've got to have a good technique and you've got to have the experience of batting in the top order for a long time.
"When I first started at No. 3, I was not a No. 3 batter; I preferred four and five. But batting at three for South Africa was the only gap at that stage, and they asked me and I did it. I had a season of doing it with the Dolphins before I did so for the national team.
"In this team you may not have guys who have batted at three domestically, but there's a time for them to start. And if Wiaan bats at three it might be his time. You don't want to knock him but you have to be real in that you need time to learn the position.
"It's a big final and it's tough to be in the deep end like that. But he can make it work. He's technically sound enough."
"The style of cricket South Africa are looking to play is more attacking, so in many ways your technique is not tested as much. Because you're playing more shots than normal. So it might fit into the way South Africa are playing."
Times have changed, along with Test cricket. But batting at No. 3 - whether you're the real deal or a compromise candidate - is still among the tougher prospects in the game. Mulder and Green are about to discover how tough.
© Cricbuzz
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