Agar returns for his first match of summer

Test spinner Ashton Agar will make his return to domestic cricket from a broken finger after being named in Western Australia's JLT Sheffield Shield squad to play Victoria this week.

Agar will play his first match of the Australian summer in his hometown of Melbourne from Sunday since being ruled out of Australia's limited-overs tour of India having fractured the little finger on his right hand during the third one-day international in Bengaluru.

The left-armer played for his WA Premier Cricket side University on Saturday and while he only bowled three overs, Warriors captain Mitch Marsh says Agar has plenty of bowling under his belt from training during his stint on the sidelines.

"You can tell how excited he is to be back playing for WA," Marsh said of Agar.

"He's been bowling heaps in the nets because it was his right hand that he broke. He's certainly ready to go.

"Him batting at eight as well strengthens our batting."

Agar impressed on Australia's Qantas Tour of Bangladesh after leapfrogging Stephen O'Keefe to be picked as Nathan Lyon's understudy, collecting seven wickets in the two-Test series.

His return comes as fellow tweakers O'Keefe and Jon Holland, his likely competition to again partner Lyon should a second spin-bowling spot become available in the Test side, both made encouraging comebacks from injury in the Shield last week.

The news hasn't been as positive for a pair of WA quicks with David Moody set to miss four to six months with stress fractures, while Jason Behrendorff will have "further investigations" to discover the cause of the back pain that stopped him bowling midway through the Warriors' recent Shield clash with Queensland.

"David Moody has been diagnosed with a lumbar stress fracture after experiencing increasing back pain over the past week," WACA physio Nick Jones said.

"David will require an extended period of rehabilitation to ensure he is given the best chance of the injury healing completely.

"Jason Behrendorff experienced increased lower back pain after day two of the Shield match against Queensland and was unable to bowl in the second innings

"Jason will have further investigations as to the cause of his increased lower back pain this week that will guide his rehabilitation plan."

Marsh, having made an early return to the bowling crease in WA's draw with the Bulls is, however, feeling in tip-top shape. 

The allrounder explained that while he wasn't supposed to bowl until this week's match against the Bushrangers, he told medical staff and coach Justin Langer that he needed to pitch in with the ball after Behrendorff went down. 

"When 'Dorff' went down, I floated the idea to the physios, the strength and conditioning coach and 'JL'," said Marsh.

"It was just a case of if I needed to bowl, then I was going to bowl. I pretty much just told them that. 

"I was given six overs to bowl, I ended up bowling nine. 

"It was just the right time to bowl and I (have) felt ready to go for a few weeks.

"The body is a little bit sore as expected but the shoulder pulled up really well. It was a little bit of an unknown as to how it will pull up."

The Warriors will be awash with seam-bowling options with Marcus Stoinis returning to the squad alongside fellow allrounders Marsh and Hilton Cartwright.

Marsh says he remains on bowling restrictions and won't over bowl himself against Victoria.  

"Obviously, I won't be bowling 30-40 overs a game but I’ll build into it nicely, but right now I'm ready to go as an allrounder," he said.

"It's a big game for us – if we go into the break with two wins, we're going to be right in the mix for the Sheffield Shield."