Plenty will be on the line when the Sheffield Shield’s 123rd season kicks off this Tuesday with matches in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. 

A handful of Test stars are expected to play in the opening round, while more could follow over the coming weeks with no men’s international cricket for Australia scheduled for the month of October.

While the Test side is reasonably settled ahead of the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India this summer, there are still some question marks over selection, meaning players will be eager to put their best foot forward. 

Here are the squads for each team (to be updated as they come in):

Sheffield Shield, round one (Oct 8-11)

NSW v South Australia, Cricket Central, Sydney

NSW squad: Moises Henriques (c), Ollie Davies, Jack Edwards, Matthew Gilkes, Ryan Hadley, Liam Hatcher, Sam Konstas, Nathan Lyon, Nic Maddinson, Jack Nisbet, Josh Philippe, Tanveer Sangha

Nathan Lyon will play his first match in three months when he leads a Blues bowling attack that could also feature emerging leg-spinner Tanveer Sangha.

Josh Philippe and Nic Maddinson will play their first Shield games since crossing to NSW from Western Australia and Victoria respectively over the winter.

Steve Smith, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have not been named but some of those big-name players could feature for NSW in the coming weeks.

Sean Abbott will miss due to a hamstring concern he picked up on Australia’s white-ball tour of the United Kingdom, while fellow pace spearheads Jackson Bird and Chris Tremain are also still recovering from injuries.

It leaves youngsters Ryan Hadley, Liam Hatcher and Jack Nisbet to lead the pace attack.

SA squad: Nathan McSweeney (c), Jordan Buckingham, Alex Carey (wk), Brendan Doggett, Daniel Drew, Travis Head, Henry Hunt, Ben Manenti, Nathan McAndrew, Conor McInerney, Lloyd Pope, Liam Scott

Australian stars Travis Head and Alex Carey are the headline inclusions for a South Australia side beginning a new era under new coach Ryan Harris, who has named a 12-player squad. 

With all the speculation surrounding who will open for the Test side, it will be interesting to see where Head bats in this line-up. One player who won’t be opening is Jake Fraser-McGurk, who confirmed over the weekend that opening in red-ball cricket was “not for me” and he would revert to a middle-order role at “five or six” with South Australia this summer.

However, Fraser-McGurk has not been included in the squad for this opening clash, having struggled in the opening role in Shield cricket last summer and endured a bit of a tough time on the recent white-ball tour against Scotland and England.

The South Australians, who have now ditched the Redbacks name, are unbeaten in One-Day Cup games so far this summer. 

Western Australia v Queensland, WACA Ground, Perth

WA squad: yet to be announced

Queensland squad: Marnus Labuschagne (c), Jack Clayton, Lachlan Hearne, Usman Khawaja, Ben McDermott, Michael Neser, Jimmy Peirson, Matthew Renshaw, Mark Steketee, Tom Straker, Mitchell Swepson, Jack Wildermuth

Marnus Labuschagne will skipper the Bulls for the first time since being appointed the state’s full-time captain, while his predesessor and fellow Test batter Usman Khawaja will also turn out in Perth.

Jimmy Peirson will take the gloves after his surprise omission from the one-day side to begin the season, while NSW converts Tom Straker and Lachlan Hearne could receive their maroon caps if named in the final XI.

Fringe Australia players Matthew Renshaw and Michael Neser will be eager to push their cases against the three-time reigning Shield champions.

Queensland have a lengthy injury list headlined by Australia white-ball quick Xavier Bartlett (side strain), while Callum Vidler (groin), Jem Ryan (hamstring), Hugh Weibgen (finger) and Gurinder Sandhu (calf) are also all managing issues.

Victoria v Tasmania, Junction Oval, Melbourne

Victoria squad: Peter Handscomb (c), Ash Chandrasinghe, Xavier Crone, Sam Elliott, Sam Harper, Marcus Harris, Campbell Kellaway, Cam McClure, Jon Merlo, Todd Murphy, Fergus O’Neill, Mitch Perry, Tom Rogers

Peter Handscomb takes the captaincy for Victoria’s opening Shield clash against last season’s runners-up with Will Sutherland sidelined “due to planned load management”. There’s also no Scott Boland or Glenn Maxwell for this fixture, although both are expected to return for the second round clash against NSW at the MCG, with Maxwell keen to play first-class cricket with an eye on next February’s Test tour to Sri Lanka. 

Without Will Pucovski, the Vics need to find a new opener to partner Marcus Harris, and have options in Ash Chandrasinghe, who has impressed in the preseason, and Tom Rogers, who comes in to the squad on a back of scores of 90 and 89 in a second XI clash with NSW last week.

Tasmania squad: Jordan Silk (c), Gabe Bell, Jake Doran, Kieran Elliott, Brad Hope, Caleb Jewell, Matt Kuhnemann, Lawrence Neil-Smith, Mitch Owen, Charlie Wakim, Tim Ward, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

Matt Kuhnemann is in line to collect Tasmania Sheffield Shield cap No.213 with his first match for his new state against Victoria. 

Gabe Bell, and Lawrence Neil-Smith look set to lead a pace attack with Tasmania missing several frontline options with Nathan Ellis, Riley Meredith and Billy Stanlake all sidelined. Mac Wright is yet to return from his knee reconstruction and Iain Carlisle was also unavailable. 

Tassie opener Tim Ward will be out to recapture his best after a difficult 2023-24 summer, with much resting on the shoulders of skipper Jordan Silk and Beau Webster.