Seven big questions from Aussie Test picks

Australia will play Test matches in Bangladesh for the first time in more than a decade, and the 13-man squad named for the three-week tour starting in mid-August raises almost as many questions as it answers.

Missing from the 16-strong touring party that pushed India to the wire on their home tracks earlier this year are veterans Stephen O'Keefe and Shaun Marsh (both deemed subcontinent specialists six months ago), seamer Jackson Bird and uncapped leg spinner Mitchell Swepson.

Allrounder Mitchell Marsh remains sidelined after shoulder surgery, and strike bowler Mitchell Starc has been ruled out with ongoing issues related to the foot stress fracture he sustained in India.

Selectors have indicated an additional fast bowler will be included in the squad based on performances during the scheduled Australia A tour to South Africa next month, with James Pattinson filling the vacancy created by Bird's omission.

Prior to the planned 2015 Test tour to Bangladesh being postponed over security concerns, the national selection panel had indicated they were prepared to blood untried talent against the world's ninth-ranked Test nation by naming opener Cameron Bancroft and seamer Andrew Fekete.

But that proposed tour also followed hard on the heels of Australia's failed 2015 Ashes campaign in the UK which led to a radical revamp of the Test set-up, whereas the upcoming series follows an extended break for most players and the lead-in to the 2017-18 Ashes contest.

The most significant talking points to arise from today's announcement are:

The identity of Australia's second-best spinner?

It's just four Test matches ago that O'Keefe was the toast of the nation, bowling Australia to their first win on Asian soil in almost six years with a career-best 12-70 at Pune that underpinned Australia's 333-run win.

But by tour's end, the 32-year-old was privately acknowledging he had played his last Test and his history of soft-tissue injuries coupled with an indiscretion at a Cricket New South Wales function soon after has seen that prediction seemingly realised.

Agar, who has not played a Test since the 2013 Ashes tour of the UK, has now been bequeathed that role and – if pitches in Bangladesh mirror those from the India series, as is anticipated – will likely return to the XI for the first Test in Dhaka starting August 27.

And possibly for the fifth Ashes Test against England at the SCG, where O'Keefe played his only two Tests in Australia due to the ground's spin-friendly conditions.

Swepson, meanwhile, will likely gain the chance to push his future claims on the Australia A tour to South Africa given he was taken to India as a 'project' player to gain experience among the squad rather than in the Test arena.

If a third spin bowling option is required in Bangladesh, allrounder Glenn Maxwell will fill that role. Which leads to the next talking point.

Who is the preferred Test allrounder with Mitchell Marsh sidelined?

Aspirants for this vacancy can be justified for feeling a tad confused by recent rulings.

For the disastrous 0-3 whitewash tour of Sri Lanka last year, New South Wales skipper Moises Henriques was named as well as Marsh among the 15 that included just two specialist spinners – Nathan Lyon and O'Keefe (until he strained a hamstring and was replaced by Jon Holland).

Called into the XI for the final Test, Henriques played as a No.4 batter and bowled just two overs but was overlooked when – in the wake of another calamitous batting failure against South Africa in Hobart last November – the selectors axed Marsh and opted to play six specialist batters instead.

When Australia bounced back to secure the subsequent series against Pakistan, Western Australia's Hilton Cartwright took over the allrounder's role (bowling just four overs) for the final Test in Sydney, but then he was deemed unsuitable for the India tour where Marsh returned, until injured and replaced in the touring party by Marcus Stoinis with Maxwell coming into the swing role in the playing XI.

With Marsh to remain sidelined for much of the rest of the year, and despite Henriques' inclusion in Australia's recent Champions Trophy ODI campaign, it would seem that Maxwell is now the go-to allrounder in spin conditions while Cartwright might be the option on seamer-friendly tracks.

Will Glenn Maxwell retain the No.6 berth for the Ashes?

With his breakthrough Test century against India upon his recall for the third Test at Ranchi, Maxwell did much to stake a claim for an extended tenure in Australia's middle-order even though his captain Steve Smith was reluctant to employ him as an allrounder.

Maxwell bowled just four of the crippling 210 overs that his team was required to send down in the drawn Ranchi match.

However, it may be the captain's preference for a full-on fast bowling attack against England that sees Maxwell expand his role with the ball come the Australian summer.

Smith has made no secret of his wish to hit his Ashes foe with a four-pronged pace battery – Starc, Pattinson, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood – in the series opener at the Gabba. It's with an eye to that campaign that Starc has been ruled out of the Bangladesh tour.

If that blueprint is adopted, incumbent spinner Nathan Lyon could miss out and it would fall to Maxwell to provide the spin overs and – perhaps more importantly – bowl them quickly lest the skipper find himself falling behind on required over rates and in danger of a suspension.

Who fills the 14th spot as Mitchell Starc's replacement?

The Australia A tour to South Africa will yield the answer, with Bird, Chadd Sayers, Jason Behrendorff and Chris Tremain all in the four-day squad for that series.

Quick Single: Big names in Australia A squads

Bird was deemed whisker close to selection for the final Test against India at Dharamsala, and another good showing on the decidedly different pitches expected in South Africa next month should bolster his case.

However, Sayers was similarly on the cusp of his first Test cap for the opening Test against Pakistan last December having previously been part of the 2016 squad for the Test tour to New Zealand earlier in the year, and was again the stand-out Sheffield Shield bowler last summer with 62 wickets.

What might count against both Bird and Sayers is the belief that Bangladesh's naturally attacking top-order batters are less credentialed to cope with pure pace than their Indian counterparts. And don't discount a fit-again Nathan Coulter-Nile, who went to Sri Lanka as a back-up quick before he was injured.

And if it's speed the selectors are viewing as a like-for-like swap for Starc, then Victoria's Tremain and WA left-armer Behrendorff will get the chance to show their wares in South Africa where conditions should be far more responsive than Dhaka and Chittagong.

Is this the end of Shaun Marsh's Test aspirations?

Unlike his younger Test teammate O'Keefe, 33-year-old Marsh has good reason to believe his omission is a setback rather than a full stop.

Despite a similarly lengthy history of injuries at inconvenient times as O'Keefe, Marsh has long been seen as a talent that can slot anywhere in the Test top-order from opener to No.6 having filled all those roles at some point in his fluctuating 23-match career.

But just when he looked to have finally secured a berth with his match-saving 53 in almost four hours on the final day at Ranchi, the left-hander suffered a debilitating back injury when fielding in the last Test and was unable to contribute when sorely needed with the bat.

With his minimalist technique regarded as tailor-made for slow, subcontinent pitches, Marsh's omission from the Bangladesh tour is an indication from selectors that his fragile body might pose too much of a risk in preference to more robust options.

However, if the wretched luck that has dogged him in recent years haunts any of his top-order colleagues in Bangladesh and they find themselves under form or fitness clouds come the start of the Ashes summer, the selectors know where they have a ready-made replacement.

Provided Marsh's body remains as sound as his temperament.

Is it safe to travel to Bangladesh?

The decision to postpone the scheduled 2015 Test tour was the result of information that pointed to the potential for a direct security threat.

When England toured there last year to play two Tests (which saw them lose for the first time to Bangladesh in Tests), they were provided with 'presidential security' that reportedly saw up to 3,000 security officers deployed whenever the team (with accompanying officials and media representatives) left their hotel compound.

Quick Single: Inside the Bangladesh security bubble

Cricket Australia's security advisors have liaised closely with their Bangladesh counterparts and government officials (including representatives of Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) to ensure that a similarly high level of vigilance is maintained for the coming tour.

Image Id: ~/media/F7E751D24F144227B67D4FA06CF296E2 Image Caption: Australia last toured Bangladesh in 2006 // Getty

"The Bangladesh Cricket Board and the Bangladesh Government have provided satisfactory levels of assurance and security for this tour to proceed at this stage, and we're very grateful to them for this," CA's Executive General Manager Team Performance Pat Howard said today.

"We will continue to work with them to finalise plans but also monitor advice from Government agencies and our own security advisors about the security risk.

"Our number one priority will always be the safety and security of our players and support staff when travelling to any country.

"Players selected for this tour will continue to receive regular security status updates prior to travelling."

Will the MOU negotiations impact the tour?

The current Memorandum of Understanding between Cricket Australia and the players' union, the Australian Cricketers' Association, is scheduled to expire on June 30. CA Chief Executive James Sutherland has indicated that should a new agreement not be reached by that date then CA is not currently considering "alternative contracting arrangements to pay players beyond 30 June if their contracts have expired".

However, talks between CA and the ACA remain ongoing and both parties are hopeful that a resolution can be reached before the June 30 deadline.

Pat Howard confirmed today that the touring party for Bangladesh was selected autonomously from the ongoing MOU stand-off.

"Selectors have chosen this Bangladesh squad irrespective and independent of the status of the MOU," he said.

"We are working towards a resolution being in place by 30 June and look forward to continuing to support these players to perform at their very best on the global stage."

Australia in Bangladesh 2017

AUSTRALIA TEST SQUAD FOR QANTAS TOUR OF BANGLADESH: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, James Pattinson, Matthew Renshaw, Matthew Wade

FIXTURES

18 August Australia arrive

22-23 August Tour match,Fatullah

27-31 August First Test, Dhaka

4-8 September Second Test, Chittagong