“Got a phone call yesterday morning when walking out for the warm-ups. Was pretty shocked,” Kuhnemann said after Queensland’s Sheffield Shield match against Victoria. “I was just lucky enough that my passport was in my bag.
“I watched every day [of the first Test] just being such a fan. These series are so good to watch. Todd Murphy was exceptional and sort of watched how Jadeja bowled. So just really excited to get over there.
“I was fortunate enough to stay with the Test guys and bowl to them in the nets in Sri Lanka so that’s still pretty fresh in my memory. I learned heaps just being over there for a couple months. If I got the opportunity I’d like to think I’d be okay.”
However, Kuhnemann’s selection would likely require Australia to go down the route of three specialist spinners and will depend on the nature of the surface in Delhi and the fitness of Green so that he could share the pace bowling with captain Pat Cummins.
“He’s a live chance to play in the next Test match,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said on Sunday. “If we play three spinners then we clearly want back-up here and available in the squad if that’s the way we want to go.”
Green is making promising progress in his recovery from the broken finger he suffered at the MCG against South Africa and has built up his workload over the last few days in Nagpur. He had two-hour batting sessions and is bowling close to full capacity. The main concern for the management has been building up Green’s bowling after the layoff.
“We’re hopeful. It’s been six weeks now,” McDonald said. “I think he’s actually got his final X-ray or scan today. He does allow us different options to the way that we want to structure up.”
“[Starc] will have a rest day today [in Delhi] and then he’ll train tomorrow on his own up there,” McDonald said. “A couple of the staff members will go up there. We’re hopeful that both of those are back on the selection table and that would change the balance of our side.”
“He’s close. So I think it’s just probably the load in that Achilles,” McDonald said. “We just don’t want to push it. He’s going to have three days off and then have a main bowl if he gets through that.”
Meanwhile, Matt Renshaw’s knee will continue to be monitored after he spent considerable time off the field on the second day in Nagpur. He had retained his place in the middle order when Travis Head was left out but made just 0 and 2 at No. 5.
McDonald defended the Head decision but noted in hindsight that Renshaw didn’t perform as expected.
“We valued others’ skill sets in those extreme conditions,” McDonald said. “I think the discussion point that we went through in the process will be different to the hindsight. And the hindsight is that those people that you will compare the competition for place around didn’t perform the way that we’d probably expected.
“[Head] had different thoughts on that and that’s fair enough. And he’s entitled to have different thoughts on that along with others. And we’re not saying any decision that we make is right or wrong.
“The Todd Murphy one was heavily discussed as well. Could we play the ball spinning in, two of those types of bowlers against the Indian batting line-up, all those discussions that we had behind the scenes are pretty much what you discussed as well.”
Alex Malcolm is an Associate Editor at ESPNcricinfo
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