The tantalising prospect of the world number one Test ranking will hang heavy over the selection meeting that decides whether Australia takes a fresh or familiar seam-bowling attack on next month's tour to New Zealand.

The 14-man Test squad for the two-Test series against the Black Caps will be named at 11am Wednesday on cricket.com.au, with Australia coach Darren Lehmann – who is also a selector – having already foreshadowed possible changes to the pace personnel.

And while that could pave the way for uncapped pair Scott Boland (Victoria) and Joe Mennie (South Australia), it might also prompt selectors to consider discarded quicks Jackson Bird and Doug Bollinger when they finalise a squad charged with wresting the top Test ranking from South Africa.

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Now that the Proteas have surrendered their home series to England and are staring at a final Test scoreline of 3-0, Australia will get their hands on the mace (and the lucrative ICC prize money) as world number one if they can win the series in NZ.

Where they have not been beaten in a Test series since 1990.

But even though his team did not lose a Test during their six-match home summer against the Black Caps and the West Indies, Lehmann expressed some mild concern about the performance of his pace bowlers in the wake of the rain-ruined New Year Test in Sydney.

"I'd like our new-ball bowling to improve," Lehmann conceded, aware that New Zealand's top-order batting on home soil is markedly superior to the flimsy resistance offered by the West Indies.

"I think we bowled well without knocking over two or three early wickets, and in the last three innings they (the West Indies) averaged close to 100 overs with the bat."

Lehmann's preference for Test bowlers who possess 'velocity' – that is, able to regularly bowl 140kph and above – has been well documented.

The loss in recent months of Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris (retirement) along with long-term injuries to Mitchell Starc (ankle), Pat Cummins (back) and Nathan Coulter-Nile (shoulder) means James Pattinson is the sole genuinely fast bowler currently fit and available.

But even though allrounder Mitchell Marsh now ranks among the 'velocity' bowlers while veteran seamer Peter Siddle – who missed the Sydney Test with an ankle injury – has struggled to hit that mark, Lehmann has indicated changed criteria might apply for the Tests at Wellington and Christchurch.

Pattinson and Hazlewood will lead the new-ball attack in New Zealand // Getty

"I think New Zealand will be different, where it moves around a little bit," Lehmann said prior to the current ODI and upcoming T20 International series against India.

"Pace is not the biggest thing for us. It's actually good control and (putting) the ball in the right areas.

"It's about getting the right attack for New Zealand first and foremost and that might be a totally different attack than our 'normal' attack, if you like."

The suggestion of a "totally different" attack does not automatically mean fresh faces.

Boland would be unlucky to miss selection given he was part of Australia's squad for all three Tests against the West Indies without earning a Baggy Green cap, even if his three international outings in the Victoria Bitter One-Day International Series to date have netted him just one wicket at 201.

But while the 26-year-old bowls with deceptive pace and hits the pitch hard, his style of bowling is not dissimilar to that of Pattinson and Josh Hazlewood (who will share the new ball in NZ) and is better suited to the faster, bouncier tracks of Australia.

The performance that brought Boland to the attention of the selection panel this summer was his 7-31 against Western Australia at the WACA, the sort of conditions he will never encounter across the Tasman.

WATCH: Boland rips through Warriors at the WACA

The Test bowlers with the most penetrative strike rates at Wellington's Basin Reserve and Christchurch's Hagley Oval over recent years have been those who extract movement through the air and off the pitch, and can land the ball where they want more often than not.

Think of the world's top-ranked Test bowler Stuart Broad (England), South Africans Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel, Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews and the Black Caps' incumbent new-ball pair Trent Boult and Tim Southee.

Consequently, the selectors are likely to look at Mennie who lacks 'velocity' but can swing the ball and move it off the seam, as shown by his record over the past year (the performance window the panel likes to study) that has seen him take 31 Sheffield Shield wickets at 31.81 for SA.

WATCH: Joe Mennie takes four against WA in Adelaide

Which is, however, six fewer wickets than 29-year-old Bird – who made the most recent of his three Test appearances on the 2013 Ashes campaign – has taken over the same time, making him the most successful Shield pace bowler over the past 12 months.

But by every other red-ball benchmark over the previous year, 34-year-old Bollinger (who has not played a Test since the disastrous home Ashes campaign of 2010-11) is the stand-out candidate.

And with such a hefty prize on the line, the panel might well decide this is not the series to unleash a couple of untried quicks in the Test arena.

WATCH: Bollinger rips through Tasmania to set up Shield win (no audio)

After all, Bollinger boasts 33 Shield wickets at a superior average (18.79), strike rate (a wicket every eight overs) and economy rate (38.70 runs per 100 balls bowled) than any of his fellow seamers who are fit and available for the NZ tour.

Plus he would have an opportunity to acclimatise to NZ conditions when New South Wales and Western Australia play an historic Shield match at Lincoln (outside Christchurch) prior to the Test match component of the NZ tour beginning.

And he would provide an important point-of-difference for the attack in the absence of fellow left-armer Starc, who was the most successful Australia bowler against the strong Black Caps' batting line-up prior to suffering a stress fracture in his foot early in the third Test at Adelaide last November.

Given the predominance of prolific right-handed batsmen in NZ's top-order – Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum - the presence of a bowler who can angle the ball across and also swing it back in could prove decisive.

As Starc showed with his 13 wickets at 23 in just over two Tests against NZ earlier in the summer, almost all of which were bowled, lbw or caught behind the wicket.

WATCH: Starc's over of heat breaks McCullum's bat

For that reason, WA left-armer Jason Behrendorff would likely have been considered for the NZ tour until a recurrence of the back injury that has plagued him this summer meant he will spend several months on the sidelines once his KFC Big Bash League commitments have ceased.

While the make-up of the pace bowling line-up is likely to dominate the selectors' discussions, the other places in the squad are contrastingly clear-cut.

Opener Joe Burns shored up his place thanks to timely century against the West Indies on Boxing Day, while the auxiliary batting berth will be filled by Shaun Marsh who scored a career-high 182 in Hobart only to lose his place for the subsequent Boxing Day match when Usman Khawaja returned from injury.

WATCH: Usman Khawaja's Boxing Day special

The only batsman without a sizeable Test score this summer is Marsh's younger brother Mitchell, but he seems certain to maintain his place in the Test starting XI now that he has found 'velocity' if not consistency.

Possible Test squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Adam Voges, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Peter Nevill, James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Peter Siddle, Doug Bollinger, Jackson Bird.