Hectic schedule sees Aussies flown home

Australia have confirmed three of the four players unused for the second Test in Abu Dhabi will return home tonight as the national side’s brains trust grapples with a complex set of selection calls ahead of the first Test of the home summer.

Cricket Australia announced today that Matthew Renshaw, Brendan Doggett and Michael Neser will fly home to Australia after they were overlooked for the second Test against Pakistan.

Glenn Maxwell and Adam Zampa, who are in the UAE for the three-match T20 series later this month, will be Australia’s substitute fielders for this Test alongside Ashton Agar, who is in both the Test and T20 squads.

The three players returning home will now have plenty of time to prepare for the second round of the JLT Sheffield Shield, which starts on October 25.

While the trio will gain valuable match practice ahead of the four-Test series against India, which begins on December 6, Australia's all-format stars face the prospect of being starved of first-class cricket ahead of the Indian series unless selectors pull them out of one-day and T20 international matches over the coming weeks.

A rejigged international schedule this season will see the Aussies play seven limited-overs games - three ODIs and a one-off T20 against South Africa and then three more T20s against India - between November 7 and 25, before the first Test against India gets underway. Australia's T20 side will also play three games against Pakistan in the UAE between October 24-28.

Players picked in both the ODI and T20 squads will not be available to play a Shield game until round five, which begins on November 27 and finishes less than a week out from the first Test against India. There’s even a chance the squad for the first Test may have already been selected by the time the fifth Shield round begins.

Cricket Australia are yet to confirm when the side for the first Test will be named, while the squads for the home limited-overs series are also yet to be selected.

The likes of Aaron Finch, Mitch Marsh, Nathan Lyon and Glenn Maxwell will all have limited Shield preparation should they keep their spots in those limited-overs teams.

The schedule clash could be a blow for a player like Maxwell, who has competing interests of nailing down his spot in the ODI side ahead of next year's World Cup and wanting to win his Test spot back.

It would also put the likes of Finch in a tricky situation. The Victorian made an encouraging start to his Test career in Dubai last week, but given Australia insisted the team to face Pakistan had been selected specifically for subcontinental conditions, he’ll be hungry to put some Shield runs on the board and show he’s a Test option on home soil too.

In contrast, aspiring Test players who are not on the radar for national white-ball duties will have more opportunities than last summer to push their case. Last year, Australia's squad for the first Test of the season was announced after three Shield rounds, while this summer it will be announced after either four or five Shield rounds have been played.

Mitchell Starc, who along with Finch, Marsh, Lyon and Agar was selected in squads for both the Tests and T20s against Pakistan, admits all players (and fast bowlers in particular) need to prioritise certain series.

"Guys that play that play all three formats … you know you can't play every game over a 12-month period purely because of how much cricket we've got these days," Starc told cricket.com.au.

"Sometimes tours overlap like they have in the past.

"You’ve got World Cups and Ashes and Indian Test series - they're big series.

"Tests are always going to be the pinnacle for me, that's what I what want to put my hand up and play first and foremost."

Recovering fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood are targeting international returns in the ODI series against the Proteas from November 4-11 before featuring for NSW in the Shield.

While Starc is set to play his first T20 for Australia in over two years later this month, he’s likely be carefully managed through the early stages of the home summer given his importance for the Tests against India.

Qantas Tour of the UAE

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Ashton Agar, Brendan Doggett, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc

Pakistan Test squad: Sarfraz Ahmed (c), Azhar Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Usman Salahuddin, Yasir Shah, Shadab Khan, Bilal Asif, Mohammad Abbas, Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz, Faheem Ashraf, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Hafeez

Oct 7-11: First Test, drawn

Oct 16-20: Second Test, Abu Dhabi