Western Australia 330 (Cartwright 132, Green 96, Sandhu 5-77, Steketee 4-50) lead Queensland 274 for 8 dec by 56 runs

Coming in at No. 4, the 24-year-old allrounder struck 15 boundaries, plus a six off Queensland spinner Mitchell Swepson, in an innings that was all class at the Gabba.

Green decided to sit out the BBL season to focus on red-ball cricket and in attempt to win back the national team place he lost to state team-mate Mitchell Marsh for this year’s Ashes tour.

Green’s cover and straight driving was of the highest standard and it came as a surprise when he was well caught by Michael Neser in the gully just after tea.

“A hundred would have been nice. That’s a good way to put your name back in there,” he told reporters. “I’m pretty comfortable with where I’m at, think I’ve got a lot of improvement to do and today was really nice to get rewards for things I’ve been working on.

“[This game has] been the back of my mind for a month now. You always want to keep thinking about the World Cup when you are over there, but when you’re not playing your mind switches to what’s next. There’s always a silver lining when you don’t get a picked, a chance to improve your game which I haven’t had the chance to do for a long time with playing a lot.”

The widely accepted view was that one of Cameron Bancroft, Matt Renshaw or Marcus Harris would replace Warner, but McDonald suggested another batter could be moved up to open. That could pave the way for Green and Marsh to bat in the same order.

“It’s always nice batting up the order, have always done it in my junior career and love doing it for WA,” Green said. “I’ve always wanted to…bat higher but obviously you have to put runs on the board and we’ve got quite a few guys in the Australian team making a lot of runs.”

Bancroft, bowled by Jack Wildermuth for 7, was unable to add to his impressive season’s haul when he was out early on day three.

Cartwright was in great touch for his eighth first-class century and unleashed after negotiating some quality seam bowling.

The 31-year-old displayed the poise and shot-making ability that led to him playing two Tests for Australia in 2017.

Mark Steketee and Gurinder Sandhu collected the bulk of the wickets for Queensland.

With one day remaining the match is likely to end in a draw, but after taking a 56-run first-innings lead Western Australia are a chance of making it interesting if they can snare early wickets on Friday.