Glenn Maxwell may have hit back-to-back sixes to clinch Australia's opening ODI win over Zimbabwe but says the real hero of Sunday's win was allrounder Cameron Green.
The 23-year-old Green earned his first international five-wicket haul in removing important pair Sikandar Raza and skipper Regis Chakabva before cleaning up the tail on Sunday.
Maxwell says he was made aware of how comfortable Green was with bat and ball on the Riverway Staidum wicket prior to his arrival in Townsville.
He said teammates informed him Green had no issues batting on a wicket with some spice and was crunching Australia's own seamers across the park.
The key to managing their young West Australian, Maxwell said, was to not overburden him.
"He's got a lot of potential and a lot of skills, talent," Maxwell told reporters on Sunday.
"It's an exciting package when you look at it but also you don't want to, I suppose, overburden him right now. He's still a young player.
"I think his record probably didn't reflect how well he's been bowing in all formats.
"We've obviously seen how well he's played at Test level and that he's got those senior players around him so he can he can play his role and get a feel for it.
"We know he's potentially going to be a long-term player for Australia in probably most of the formats and it's nice to see him have those senior players around him to be able to, I suppose, walk him through the early stage of his career."
Green's early form one year out from the ODI World Cup bodes well for Australia's side boasting a plethora of allrounders.
Skipper Aaron Finch opted for an allrounder heavy line-up for their first of three ODI's against Zimbabwe but didn't rule out changes in the future.
Maxwell said conditions would dictate whether or not Australia opted for a deeper batting order, but said such a strategy had proved successful with ODI world champions England.
"Their (England's) bowlers have been a good option with the bat still, and I suppose that's up to us to try to sort of move that way or try to mimic it in the way we want to go about it," he said.
"I think in 2015 we probably set the standard of what a one day side structure looked like and a lot of teams started to copy that going forward.
"England are sort of that benchmark that we're sort of working towards."
