Coach and selector Andrew McDonald has confirmed Australia's squad will remain unchanged for the second Test in Adelaide but there are some concerns over Mitchell Marsh's fitness following a humbling loss to India in Perth.
The same 13-player squad that was selected for the first Test, which included spare batter Josh Inglis and reserve fast bowler Scott Boland, will be the group on duty in Adelaide although McDonald did not go as far as committing to the same XI. He also confirmed the entire squad would convene in Adelaide on Monday, a day earlier than was originally planned, in order to hold an extra net session following the 295-run drubbing they received in Perth.
"The same people in that changeroom are the same people that will be in Adelaide," McDonald said in the aftermath of one of Australia's poorest performances on home soil in recent memory.
When asked if Marsh had pulled up well after bowling 17 overs in three days, the most he has delivered in a game in three years having bowled just four overs in all cricket over the past eight months, McDonald was cautious. "We'll wait and see," he said.
The coach did not think that Australia had been caught short with bowling options in Perth, due to Marsh's fitness, despite taking just 16 wickets on a surface where India managed to take 20 easily while restricting Australia to just 104 and 238.
"No we didn't feel that [was a weakness]," McDonald said. "We knew that Mitch [Marsh] was slightly underdone coming in but I thought the performance in the first innings was satisfactory."
The coach was pressed further on whether the same XI would feature in Adelaide, and whether Inglis could be considered to replace a specialist batter.
"We'll assess that as we go along, but as I said the squad that's in there, they'll be in Adelaide," he said.
External pressure is mounting on the out of form Marnus Labuschagne. McDonald acknowledged that there will be a lot of conversations with Labuschagne about his batting over the next 11 days but they were confident he that he was the best option No. 3 if he can rediscover his form.
"That's an ongoing discussion and that ebbs and flows in players' careers, so at the moment he's in one of those patches and no doubt he'll be getting critiqued externally," McDonald said. "But internally we're really confident that, at his best, he's the player that we need."
One issue Australia face is the quality of options below the incumbents in domestic cricket. The selectors faced a difficult choice when selecting Nathan McSweeney to make his Test debut, opting to promote the 25-year-old to open the batting despite having never done it in Sheffield Shield cricket and having had most of his first-class success and Nos. 4 and 5.
Inglis' success in first-class cricket has come batting at No. 6 as a wicketkeeper, and he has no record of success in the top four for Western Australia. Beau Webster is another who has been prolific in Shield cricket in recent times but at No. 6 only. He would only come into the equation if Marsh was ruled out and there was a need for a fifth bowling option.
The selectors lack of faith in Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft and Matt Renshaw has been evident over the last 12 months when none of them have been selected despite an opening spot becoming available twice in that time.
Beyond that, there are not many batters in Shield cricket who are posting huge numbers to build a case for Test selection, in part because of the difficulty of domestic pitches. But McDonald was confident the talent was there if needed.
"I think there's been enough players banging down the door," he said. "I feel as though we've got some depth there if called upon. I think sometimes people look at the pure numbers of what's happening in Shield cricket, but it's sometimes hard to get a connection with the surfaces they're sometimes playing on. So we feel as though we've got ample players available if called upon."
McDonald added a review of the Perth performance would centre around whether Australia's failures with both bat and ball were down to poor planning or poor execution.
"It's always a combination," McDonald said. "We felt as though our planning going in was where we needed it to be. Execution in amongst that is always a question. We were comfortable with the plans. Clearly the method with the batters and the way they've been challenged is always going to be a learning moving forward. So we've got some challenges, no doubt about that."