Two more casualties from the UK tour have emerged amid a host of moving parts for Australia's leading men's cricketers
Injuries abound, but rare Shield chance awaits white-ball stars
The country’s leading male cricketers will filter back into Sheffield Shield ranks over the coming weeks, although the final injury toll of a bruising limited-overs tour has dwindled playing stocks in a rare October free of international cricket for Australia.
The Sheffield Shield, the start of which has been purposely delayed to allow returning Australian white-ball players to feature, will take on an elevated role in priming Test incumbents and hopefuls for a heavyweight series against India.
States are yet to announce their squads for the opening round beginning Tuesday. Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne and Alex Carey are among those who had been earmarked to play, while the likes of Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood could feature later in the month.
But injuries picked up by Victoria's Matt Short (abductor) and NSW's Sean Abbott (hamstring) at the back-end of the month-long tour of the UK mean two more Test hopefuls will not be available to begin the season.
Sheffield Shield, round one fixtures (Oct 8-11)
NSW v South Australia, Cricket Central, Sydney
Victoria v Tasmania, Junction Oval, Melbourne
Cameron Green, whose back injury was being assessed this week, was the most notable casualty of the trip that also saw Nathan Ellis, Riley Meredith, Xavier Bartlett and Ben Dwarshuis go down. Spencer Johnson had already been ruled out before the tour.
Green's injury, which could sideline him from bowling for some time depending on the prognosis, throws another spanner in the works for selectors attempting to set the batting line-up for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign beginning November 22.
A secondary concern will be finding enough fit bowlers for next month's six white-ball games against Pakistan to allow Pat Cummins (who may not play any Shield cricket ahead of the Test summer), Starc and Hazlewood to rotate through those games to prime themselves for India.
Meredith was slated to make his return to bowling via club cricket this weekend in Hobart.
The likely next man in for the Test bowling attack, Scott Boland, will miss Victoria's first Shield game, against Tasmania at the Junction Oval, as he recovers from a foot concern.
Neither Short nor Glenn Maxwell were expected to play either, while skipper Will Sutherland is on a bowling loads restriction having himself been on the mend from a back stress fracture.
The fitness of Sutherland along with the nationally-contracted trio of Abbott, Ellis and Bartlett will have to be monitored for the Pakistan series. Bartlett may be out of action until the KFC BBL, but Abbott's injury was not believed to be as severe.
The same will go for Jhye Richardson and Lance Morris. The Western Australian pair are both coming off winter injuries, with Morris shaping as an important depth bowler should one of the 'big three' quicks go down against India. Richardson trained with Australia in Brisbane prior to the UK tour so is clearly still on selectors' minds.
Meanwhile, where Head and Smith bat for South Australia and NSW respectively will be of some intrigue given the focus on who will partner Usman Khawaja at the top of Australia's Test order this summer.
Queensland's Michael Neser, along with Boland, will be desperate to hold their spots in the pecking order having both been in Australia's last Test squad that went to New Zealand in February-March – the most recent assignment for the men in Baggy Green.
For white-ball regulars like Maxwell, Short, Abbott and Josh Inglis, as well as Cooper Connolly and Jake Fraser-McGurk who look set for more regular international limited-overs opportunities, the coming month marks a rare chance to play red-ball cricket.
After a quiet start to the domestic season, which is currently on a near fortnight-long pause following the first round of One-Day Cup games, the schedule becomes jam-packed.
In addition to the Shield, the three ODIs and three T20Is against Pakistan, the calendar also features Australia A face India A in two first-class matches – in Mackay (from October 31) and at the MCG (from November 7) – all before the main event of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series begins.
For the likes of Mitch Swepson, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann, Peter Handscomb and Matthew Renshaw, there is also the chance to push their cases for the upcoming two-Test series in Sri Lanka in January-February. All of those players have played on recent subcontinental tours. Maxwell is in a similar boat having played all seven of his Tests in Asia and going close to adding another in 2022 in Galle.
"Definitely on the radar," Swepson, who played Tests in Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2022, said of Australia's next overseas tour.
"That's where I want to be. It's where every cricketer wants to be, playing Test cricket. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to go there.
"I was lucky enough to go last time, and it's nice to bowl at Galle, takes a bit of spin, so I'd love to get another opportunity to bowl there. But, at the moment, that's four months away, so we've still got a lot of cricket to play."