Australian selectors will be spread thin over the next fortnight as they finalise the Test side tasked with reclaiming the Border Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade.

While the main focus will be on the Australia A versus India A clash in Mackay beginning on Thursday, attention will also be paid to the domestic and international scene as well.

Australia host Pakistan in a one-day international series beginning at the MCG on Monday night, while the next round of Sheffield Shield also has its points of intrigue.

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Australia’s selection chair George Bailey said that there will be a “certain level of selection presence at both the A games and we will watch them closely”.

This is understandable given the debate as to who Australia’s next opener is certain to be settled by the deeds in the Australia A matches in Mackay and at the MCG in just over a week’s time.

Former Test openers Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris and hopefuls Sam Konstas and Nathan McSweeney, who will captain the Australia A side, have the chance to impress in those matches.

It has been reported that Bancroft, who played the last of his ten Tests in 2019, and Harris, who most recently opened two years ago against England and has 14 Tests to his name, will open in the Australia A match in Mackay.

Australian captain Pat Cummins will be among those keeping tabs on the battle for the chance to partner veteran Usman Khawaja in the opening Test of the summer in Perth beginning November 22.

Speaking at the launch of his book Tested, Cummins was the latest senior Australian figure to say age and inexperience will not preclude New South Wales teenager Konstas from earning a spot.

“Age is just a number. When you’re young, you don’t have a lot of experience to draw on,” he said.

“But at the same time, there are loads more benefits because you’ve got no baggage and there’s an element of naivety.

“If you’re picked and you’re young, that usually means that you’re running hot and you’re in great form. If you’re scoring well in domestic cricket, then that stands up for any kind of thing that you’re going to get thrown at you in Test cricket.

“Whoever we pick, I’m sure they’ll be ready. He seems great. I’ve spent a little bit of time with him and he’s impressive. He’s a great kid. He’s obviously scored some runs which has put his name right up there, and that’s great.

“We’ve got two more Aussie A games and another Shield round before selectors need to pick that first Test side, so we’ll see how the next few weeks play out.”

Marnus Labuschagne, meanwhile, said recent failures by leading contenders should not rule them out, noting “you would not want to be judging them off one or two innings” at the start of the Sheffield Shield season.

“A few rounds in, certainly the big performers so far have been Alex Carey, Josh Inglis and probably Nathan McSweeney and Sam Konstas – they’ve probably been the big performers in the first four innings of Shield cricket,” he told SEN in Queensland.

“But there’s two Australia A games, another Shield game, so there’s about six to eight innings to go before selection. So we’ll have to wait and see.”

The third round of Sheffield Shield begins on Friday, with New South Wales to tackle Queensland, Tasmania to play Western Australia and South Australia to host Victoria.

Former Test batter Peter Handscomb, who has been in good form to start the season and shapes as a candidate to tour Sri Lanka later in the summer, will represent Victoria.

He said in Melbourne last week selectors had advised him not to read anything into missing out on the Australia A games, telling him they were using them to find out more about a select group of players rather than those who have performed well in the past.

The domestic games will also give some of Australia’s top order including Khawaja and Labuschagne a chance to spend more time in the middle leading into the India series.

Wicketkeeper Alex Carey is the only Australian batter to fully fire throughout the opening two matches of the series but Bailey said he was far from concerned, stating he has no doubt that the incumbents will be close to peak form by the time they arrive in Perth.

“Those guys who have played a lot of Test cricket and have prepared for their series on the back of lots of runs, on the back of playing different formats at different times, I think we have got enough evidence to suggest that it doesn’t necessarily flow on to what you’re going to see come the Test matches,” he said.

“(We have) trust in all those guys and as we’ve said right throughout the summer, there has been a real focus at the individual level on how they prepare (to) make sure they’re ready for the first ball, whenever they’re first involved, in that first Test. That’s really what’s crucial.

“As I (have) said around Cam Bancroft, everyone’s out there trying to do their best and (trying to) spend as much time in the middle or get the right amount of overs under their belt, but I think they’re all experienced enough that regardless of whether they go in with a mountain runs behind them, or not quite as many as they would like, or wickets, whatever that may look that they’ll be ready to come the first Test.”