Melbourne: After hitting 74 for Australia A on the second day of their four-day match against India A at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, opener Marcus Harris said he would be ready to open the batting for Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy should he become available .

On a pitch that still offered help to seamers, Harris kept India A at bay with his patient knock of 74 off 138 balls, punctuated by five boundaries, as Australia A made 223 in their first innings. The tie is sure to give Harris an edge over other competition to partner Usman Khawaja in the first Test against India in Perth, starting on November 22.

“Externally, obviously this game was built up a lot, which is fair enough. I feel like I’ve hit well, but so have a lot of people. If I get called, I feel like I’m ready to go – and if I don’t , so be it,” Harris told reporters at the end of Day Two’s play.

Harris, who played 14 Tests for Australia and averages just 25.29 with a top score of 79, feels he is better equipped to take on the challenges of batting in the longer format than he was 12 months ago. – I feel quite well equipped. “I think if I was in this position 12 months ago, I probably wouldn’t have been able to perform like I did at the start of this season,” he said.

“My results last year probably said that. So I’ve been proud of that. This time I’ve probably embraced it a little bit more than I have in the past. I think in the past I’ve probably tried to really avoid it and build it up , whereas this time I’ve probably just taken it as it’s come to me and accepted it for what it is, he added.

He also credited timely advice from Chris Rogers, the former Test opener currently Victoria’s head coach for his dogged knock. “That was probably something that ‘Bucky’ (Rogers) said … to the whole batting line-up at Victoria, about if the wicket does a bit, you don’t always have to look to hit it for four. Look to hit it for two.”

“It’s just something simple that resonated with me a little bit. Sometimes you come out and hit boundaries. Then days like today I think I hit a four. I’ve definitely been able to tick off the scoreboard a lot more than I have (in the past), and maybe it’s just unconsciously not looking to hit the ball as hard,” he added.

“I think a lot of times when you do well on wickets like you actually spend a lot of time at the other end. I think I was a bit lucky with that. Today I think I batted for 50 overs and I might have only faced half the balls,” Harris concluded.

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated wire feed by Syndicate. Other than the headline, no editing has been done to the copy of ABP Live.)