Under-Strength Australia Face World Champions in Brisbane

Joe Burns might make his international debut for Australia (Getty Images)

Three years ago, Cricket Australia's chief executive James Sutherland suggested that Twenty20 was such a specialist game that the day might come when Australia could have completely separate Test and T20 teams playing on opposite sides of the globe at the same time. Effectively, that day has arrived, although this one-off occurrence is not quite what Sutherland had in mind.

Australia's Test players have now flown to Chennai to prepare for the first Test against India, unquestionably the correct priority. But the packed schedule means they still need to put out a national team for this T20 against West Indies at the Gabba, without David Warner, Shane Watson, Matthew Wade, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc and Xavier Doherty, to name but a few.

Apart from the captain George Bailey, it is hard to say for certain how many members of the squad for this match would be part of Australia's first-choice T20 side. Shaun Marsh, perhaps. James Faulkner might soon get to that point, and so might Aaron Finch. And that's about it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, although the fans buying tickets for the Brisbane match might disagree.

A year out from the next World Twenty20, it gives the selectors a chance to have a look at some men who could push their cases. There is the uncapped quartet of Ben Rohrer, Joe Burns, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Coulter-Nile, there is Faulkner, Ben Cutting, Ben Laughlin and Clint McKay, all jostling to become regular members of the T20 attack, while the batsmen Adam Voges and Aaron Finch hope to make the most of their last opportunity of the international summer.

For West Indies, this is a chance to finish on a high after a miserable five-match ODI series. They are the reigning world champions in the Twenty20 format and there is no question that the short matches suit their dynamic style. But after such a lacklustre display in the 50-over games, can they switch on for their last outing of the tour?

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