Fringe players jostling for World Cup selection
Door remains ajar for Cup hopefuls
The first match of the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup is still some five months away, but players on the edge of Australia's ODI squad are running out of chances to put their name forward for cricket's showpiece event.
Australia will play eight One-Day Internationals between now and the announcement of their final World Cup squad on January 8 - three against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates next month and a five-match series against South Africa at the start of the home summer.
The domestic 50-over competition will also wrap up early in the season, with the Matador BBQs One-Day Cup compressed into three weeks between October 4-26.
That means there will no 50-over cricket between the final match of the series against the Proteas on November 23 and the squad announcement in early January.
But coach Darren Lehmann says an absence of one-day matches will not prevent players making a late push for selection through good performances in other forms of the game.
"You've seen someone like George Bailey be picked for Test cricket on the back of one-day form against India last summer," Lehmann told cricket.com.au.
"What we're after is performances at the international level.
"If they can do that, obviously they can transfer the form across.
"That's what we think, anyway.
"Anyone who is playing domestic cricket or Australian cricket can force their way into the squad.
"We're really guided by performances and that's what we want to see.
"Yes, we've got a core group that we're really comfortable with, but there's always room to improve.
"So if those core guys are off form and not playing well, then we might have to change that."
Lehmann has not been disheartened by the case of Bailey, who managed just one score over 50 during Australia's Ashes whitewash last summer to finish the series with an average of 26.14.
The coach believes Bailey's presence in a side that reclaimed the Ashes in such an emphatic manner has only reinforced the selection panel's view that players can transfer success from one form of the game to another.
"I'd probably disagree (that Bailey's selection was a disappointment) because we won five Test matches with the same XI," Lehmann said.
"He would have liked to have had better batting performances.
"But as a team, he was fantastic for our team group and our team dynamic last year.
"So I was pleased with that outcome."
Lehmann's comments are good news for the likes of Shane Watson, Ryan Harris, Shaun Marsh, James Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile, who will all have to overcome injuries and the front-ended one-day schedule to force their way back in to the ODI set-up before the World Cup.
Coulter-Nile returned to action for Perth Scorchers in the Oppo Champions League Twenty20 this week having overcome a hamstring injury he suffered in the Indian Premier League.
The 26-year-old featured in all five of Australia's ODIs last summer, but missed the recent tour of Zimbabwe after undergoing surgery in June.
After the Champions League, Coulter-Nile will get his chance to impress in 50-over cricket if, as expected, he turns out for Western Australia in the domestic one-day cup.
But given the one-day tournament comes so soon after a three-month layoff, it's unlikely that Coulter-Nile will hit peak form until much later in the summer.
He believes the schedule has made his task of breaking into Australia's World Cup squad even more difficult.
"It's a bit unfortunate that the one-day cup is played in that short space of time," Coulter-Nile told cricket.com.au.
"It would be nice to get a few one-day matches throughout the year.
"But obviously if you’re going to get picked (for the World Cup), then you have to perform and these are the games you have to do it in.
"As far as importance goes, it’s for players like me who are on the fringe of selection because you don’t get picked out of anything else.
"A few blokes can’t actually make this tournament. Whether they’re out of form or coming back from injury later on closer to the World Cup, how do they prove their fitness or form?
"There are other forms of cricket with the Big Bash League leading into it and also Sheffield Shield cricket, so I guess there is still plenty of cricket to be picked from."
While Coulter-Nile and the other aforementioned injured stars are currently out of the squad, they are viewed as genuine chances to play a role in the World Cup, which gets underway on February 14.
But it will be difficult, with Lehmann indicating that there are only a couple of places in the 15-man squad that remain up for grabs.
"There’ll probably be one or two spots, I would think, that we're up in the air about," he said.
"Over these next eight games or depending on injury it could be more spots, but we're very close to where we want to be as a panel.
"And that's making sure we've got all bases covered for a World Cup, which is once every four years and it's going to be at home, which is fantastic."