Australia Test captain Tim Paine has reiterated the competition for spots in the batting lineup in the upcoming summer when his side will be hosting Afghanistan and England for an all-important Ashes series.
Paine has alerted the contenders about the schedule of the next season of the Sheffield Shield where they will get an opportunity to press on for a place in the side before the Test against Afghanistan.
There are certain openings in the batting order with both Travis Head and Matthew Wade losing their place in the side at some stage last summer and there will be few more if Australia will make it to the final of the T20 World Cup.
If not for the T20 World Cup and quarantine related norms, Australia will have a fairly settled batting lineup leading up to the first Ashes Test at Gabba. David Warner will be fully fit and raring to bat at the top of the order followed by Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith.
The lower middle-order looks settled with Cameron Green and skipper Paine himself and that leaves only two positions that of the second opener and the number five batsman up for the grab.
Will Pucovski, who made an enterprising debut against India at the SCG last summer before disintegrating his shoulder should be favourite to partner Warner with Marcus Harris waiting in the wings for his chances.
"[It should be] very competitive, there's a few spots up for grabs there's no doubt about that. We are lucky that we get four or five Shield games before the Afghanistan Test, and some away in the T20 World Cup, so they'll be opportunities for guys to press their case in the first few rounds of Shield cricket. The Afghanistan Test will be an important game as well if some of our guys are not here,” Tim Paine said in a virtual press conference.
"It will be up for the guys to grab their opportunity and think every batter around the country will be licking their lips at the moment thinking there is an Ashes series in Australia with a couple of spots up for grabs."
Big players such as Warner and Smith will come into the Ashes series without any match practice with the red ball if Australia go all the way in the T20 World Cup which can be a bit of concern. However, Paine conceded the problem as part and parcel of the modern-day game and has chosen to bank on their experience to adapt having done those sorts of adjustments successfully before to excel in the Ashes series.
"It's part of modern-day cricket. You have to be able to chop between tournaments and formats. Normally those players doing it, the three-format players, are the very best at it and are used to doing it. I don't see it as a huge issue,” Paine added.
"We know the conditions here in Australia. If we can get a few games into those guys would be ideal but they are really experienced and either way, our team will be ready to go."
Steve Smith is recovering from a recurrent elbow injury and could well opt-out of the T20 World Cup to be played in the UAE and Paine has already expressed his selfish satisfaction of a possible option.