Focus on Sheffield Shield as Test selection comes to the crunch

Potential Australia Test players will start their auditions this Wednesday when a full round of Sheffield Shield matches begin.

Two more Shield rounds follow before the first Test against New Zealand begins in Perth on December 9.

It is likely the squad for the first few Tests will be named some time after this week's matches and before the following round of matches in late November.

The Test squad will assemble in Perth on December 3, and with the bowling unit relatively settled, the interest lies in who gets selected in Australia's spluttering batting line-up.

The next one or two Sheffield Shield rounds could answer some of the questions that were posed when Australia gave up a one-nil lead in South Africa to eventually lose the final two Tests, the series and the number one Test ranking.

The most pressing issue is the name of the number three batter following Marnus Labuschagne's disappointing tour of South Africa.

Since returning to the national side at the beginning of last year's Ashes series, the Queenslander has made just 426 runs in 10 Tests at an average of 23.66.

Labuschagne's return of zero and four during the third Test in Cape Town was the final straw for most commentators, and Australia's chairman of selectors, George Bailey, confirmed he would not be considered for the four-Test series against New Zealand this summer.

Labuschagne's ousting could mean Western Australia's Cooper Connolly retains his spot in the side, having got the gig at Cape Town when Steve Smith sat out because of his neck injury.

Connolly has been selected to play for Australia in the three one-day internationals against England, with the first on Friday, and so will not be playing in the Shield this week.

Western Australia's next Shield match against Tasmania in Perth, which starts on November 23, will give him some red-ball match practice if he is named in the squad.

If not Connolly, who else could come into the Test side?

Apart from Shield enthusiasts, not many people would have heard of 27-year-old Queenslander Jack Clayton, but he is the hot player this season and one who has been endorsed for Test selection by his former state teammate, Usman Khawaja.

The number four has scored 303 runs in three Shield matches this year at an average of 75.75 and moreover has scored runs in every game with a recent 104 and two 50s.

He has another opportunity to push his claim when Queensland takes on Tasmania in Brisbane this week.

Aggressive New South Wales opener Oliver Davies is at the top of the Shield batting charts with 332 runs at 66.40

However, 253 of those runs came in one innings in the first Shield match of the season and since then the 26-year-old has posted just one other significant score of 52.

His opening partner, discarded Test batter Sam Konstas, continues to push his name forward, with 229 runs at 76.33, including a century, a 50 and a one-day ton.

The pair will be part of the NSW side to play South Australia this week at Cricket Central in Sydney's Silverwater.

Victorian youngsters Campbell Kellaway and Oliver Peake are often talked up, and while neither have set the Shield alight this season, they have another chance against WA come Wednesday.

Of the older campaigners, 33-year-old former Test players NSW's Kurtis Patterson and Western Australia's Cameron Bancroft are both in the runs, but will their ages work against them?

The jury is still out on NSW's 34-year-old Nic Maddinson, who was surprisingly called up for two Tests in South Africa after missing all of last season's Sheffield Shield while recovering from testicular cancer treatment.

And what of the batting order and most pressingly the number three position after Labuschagne's axing?

Moving Steve Smith up to three seems the obvious solution and the one most pundits are calling for.

His average of 65.22 from 30 innings at first drop is better than at any other spot in the line-up, but he has only batted there once since 2017, scoring 17 against England in Perth last year.

Then there is the issue of his dodgy neck joint that flared up in South Africa, which he is now resting at his New York home.

Smith is expected to return for NSW's match against Queensland on November 22 at the SCG.

Cameron Green is another option for first drop.

Like his fellow Western Australian, Connolly, Green will miss this week's round of matches as part of the Australian squad for the one-day series.

The big watch on Green is his bowling fitness following an abdominal injury prior to the South African Tests.

He returned in Cape Town as a batter only and continues to build up his bowling loads in training.

He could bowl in the one-dayers, otherwise his only opportunity to prove his match fitness will be the Shield match against Tasmania.

If Green can bowl, it is hard to see Tasmania's Beau Webster returning to number seven.

Webster was dropped for the third Test at Cape Town after taking just one wicket in his previous four Tests and scoring 81 runs at 13.50.

Western Australia's Josh Inglis would seem to be a lock to stay in the team after his first innings century at Cape Town batting at five.

Queenslander Matthew Renshaw's solid return to the opening position at Cape Town helps Inglis's cause.

Both Inglis and Renshaw are in the one-day squad but will get another shot at four-day cricket the following week.

Sheffield Shield matches are so often the forgotten cricket fixtures of the summer, but right now they are of crucial importance.

Sheffield Shield matches Wednesday, November 11:

New South Wales v South Australia, SydneyVictoria v Western Australia, MelbourneQueensland v Tasmania, Brisbane