“The first thing you want to see is for him playing well and be comfortable out in the middle and particularly playing the short ball – there’s no worries in terms of that,” Rogers said.

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“How many games they want to see that in, I can’t tell you that. We only have three Shield games before the Big Bash break, and he’ll miss one of them. He probably wants to make the other two matches count if he wants to be considered for the Test. But equally he can come out and get a 200 and then walk straight into the Australian side and get a 60.

“He’s one of those players, there’s an element of class to him. You know when you throw balls to him, it’s different, so I think perhaps they want to see him go out, look comfortable, and maybe they’ll be comfortable to pick him.

“If he went out and scored a big score I definitely would pick him.”

Selectors also have headaches with their attack after James Pattinson’s international retirement. Test spinner Nathan Lyon threw his support behind Sean Abbott making a Test debut.

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Lyon said the NSW seamer, coming off a big century in a Blues intra-squad game, was in career-best form.

“I think Sean Abbott could stand up and perform at that level,” Lyon said.

The uncapped Michael Neser, a perennial squad member and drinks carrier, and Mark Steketee are also in contention.

Lyon said Pattinson’s retirement came as a “massive shock,” but Rogers could sense during pre-season training in locked-down Melbourne that Pattinson was battling.

“We’ve observed him closely over this pre-season, when you have a big caged lion in the depths of winter in the indoor centre trying to get motivated you can sense something is a bit amiss,” Rogers said.

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