The unique feeling before preseason tryouts is one that most sportsmen and women, from local plodder to seasoned pro, can identify with.

It matters little if the impending audition determines primary school or national team selection; anxious excitement and heightened self-awareness take over. Every move matters, and the realisation everyone’s watching is palpable. Squad incumbents are outwardly confident but inwardly tense, for the new kids on the block could take their place. Newcomers, on the other hand, are hopeful and expectant, eager to make themselves known for all the right reasons.

For Australia’s cricketers, this September is their preseason trial.

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The Australia A tour of India starting Sunday and the JLT Cup starting 16 September represent perhaps the best chances for players to establish themselves within an Australia set-up that at present is decidedly unstable. Injuries, high-profile suspensions and poor form has created a scenario in which few players have cemented spots in the Test and ODI teams.

Certainly the A tour has morphed, by coincidence or design, into a selection trial for the two-Test series against Pakistan in October. Six spots are up for grabs for the first test XI: four batsmen, a spinner and a paceman. The other five – Tim Paine, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon – are ostensibly locks for the first test, barring injury.

For the rest, the battle is about to commence. Four batsmen who played Australia’s last test match, a 492-run humbling to South Africa, have been told they must perform on Subcontinent wickets before being selected. They are Usman Khawaja, Mitch Marsh, Matthew Renshaw and Peter Handscomb.

Langer has said the tour will have a “huge” bearing on who he takes to the UAE, and it would appear that just two spots are currently secured in Australia’s top six, namely Shaun Marsh and Glenn Maxwell. Maxwell was told he could prepare for the Pakistan series in Australia and is a proven performer on spinning wickets.

Selection for the remaining four spots will be a six-way battle between the aforementioned four, Travis Head and Kurtis Patterson. While most would assume a pecking order for selection led, for example, by Usman Khawaja, Langer has indicated that all cards are on the table. Runs in India equals first Test selection against Pakistan, it would seem. For Head and Patterson, both yet to make their test debut, the stakes couldn’t be higher.



Things are similarly up in the air on the bowling front. With the assumption that Australia will field two spinners and two pacemen in the UAE, Ashton Agar, Jon Holland and Mitchell Swepson will battle it out to partner Nathan Lyon in the first test starting 7 October. Again, Agar would appear to be the favourite in this trio, but a Swepson debut or Holland recall is not beyond possibility.

With injuries to both Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc’s pace partner is also undecided. Those vying for the final place in the XI include Jhye Richardson, Chris Tremain and Michael Neser. Cummins’s much-admired performance on lifeless Indian pitches in last year’s tour of India reiterated the importance of raw pace on the Subcontinent, thus Richardson, who regularly bowls upwards of 140 kilometres per hour, would appear a frontrunner.

However, selectors will consider the workload on the 21-year-old for what’s expected to be brutal conditions. Experienced campaigner Tremain, the 2017-18 Sheffield Shield player of the year, therefore remains a strong chance.

Similar to the A tour, albeit with less immediate impact, the JLT One-Day Cup starting in a fortnight represents a significant opportunity for ODI hopefuls to force their way into the side. A horror 5-0 whitewash defeat to England this winter was Australia’s fourth series loss in a row. The side has won just two of their past 20 matches and is undergoing a complete revamp.

If ever there was a time to squeeze your way into the side, it is now.

With the World Cup just nine months away, strong performance in the condensed three-week tournament is imperative. More immediately, JLT form could garner selection for the three-match ODI series against South Africa in November which kicks off the international summer.

While runs and wickets in the aforementioned ‘trials’ will largely determine those who make the test and ODI squads, another selection variable comes in the form of new coach Justin Langer. The West Australian has already indicated he will do things differently to Darren Lehmann, with a focus on players who both express themselves individually and show strong discipline.



Given the fact he now makes up one of just three national selectors after a recent overhaul, players must also fit within his cricketing philosophies should they wish to secure a spot in his new-look side.