Pattinson, Bird in line for Hobart Test

Having entered the summer with an embarrassment of Mitches and fast bowling stocks the envy of world cricket, Australia’s selectors convene today to ponder a vastly changed landscape as the Test season begins its second act.

Ten days after Mitchell Johnson revealed he was turning his back on all international cricket, Mitchell Starc felt and heard an ominous crack at the top of his right foot as he completed his ninth over of the historic day-night Test and now faces a stint on the sidelines of unknown length.

Starc revealed in Adelaide today that he will be confined to wearing a recuperative ‘moon boot’ on his injured leg and sitting at home in Sydney until the New Year while the stress fracture in the third metatarsal of a foot already impinged by painful bone spurs slowly mends. 

WATCH: No timestamp on return: Starc

While the latest injury compounds the discomfort the 25-year-old - now Australia’s top-ranked bowler across all three formats of the game - endures it will not convince him to undergo major surgery on the troublesome ankle which would rule him out of cricket for months.

Rather he will consult with medical advisors upon his return to Sydney today in a bid to clear some of the uncertainty surrounding his likely availability to return to a new-ball attack that has changed in each of the three Tests so far this summer.

And will again be revamped for next week’s first Commonwealth Bank Test against the West Indies in Hobart.

"My ankle has been an issue for past six to nine months," said Starc, who first exhibited signs of the problem during the first Ashes Test in Cardiff last July but whose condition has been "managed" through cortisone injections, treatment and regular MRI scans that showed no immediate need for surgery.

"We have been managing it for a little while.

"I had a couple more cortisones (injections) after the Perth Test (and) it has been managed quite well.

"It has played better than expected, particularly after Cardiff.

"The foot won’t rule me out for rest of the (Australia) summer so there’s no point doubling-up and missing extra time with surgery.

"(But) there'll be a point where that will happen."

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Starc was reduced to crutches after day one // Getty Images

Even less straightforward to diagnose is the next addition(s) to a Test team, that will begin the three-Test series against the West Indies on December 10, barely recognisable from the XI that took to Adelaide Oval for the start of last summer’s Test campaign against India.

Missing from that line-up will be Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Shane Watson, Chris Rogers, Ryan Harris and Mitchell Johnson (all retired) and now Starc, with Peter Siddle also being monitored after suffering from back soreness throughout the three-day (and night) Test against New Zealand.

In addition, Josh Hazlewood – man of the match with the pink ball and now a leader of a re-cast attack  just 12 Tests into his career – is being scrutinised to ensure his bowling workloads do not make him the next fast bowler inked on to the injury list. 

WATCH: Hazlewood's Test career-best haul of 6-70

Captain Steve Smith noted prior to the second Test against the Black Caps in Perth that Hazlewood was approaching the "red zone" where injury risk becomes heightened, and followed up in the wake of the third Test in Adelaide last night by warning “we don't want to break him”.

"He bowled like a genius and obviously he has been building up through the series and that was obviously his best performance," Starc said of his NSW and new-ball partner today.

"He definitely showed us what he can do and he’s at the top of his game.

"He’s doing a great job and I’m sure we’re going to see a lot more wickets this summer from him."

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Pattinson in full flight for Victoria // Getty Images

James Pattinson will come into the XI for Hobart, having been included in the squad for the Adelaide Test, even though he has played just three and a half red ball games (and one with the pink) since returning from a back injury that kept him out for almost a year.

Provided Siddle and Hazlewood are also deemed ready to go for Hobart, as is expected when the Australia squad is announced tomorrow, then the additional pace bowling berth seems likely to be fought out between Tasmania’s Jackson Bird and Western Australia’s Nathan Coulter-Nile.

Although neither is expected to be part of the final XI unless the Blundstone Arena pitch boasts an even thicker mat of grass than did Adelaide, or the injury curse strikes again in the lead up to the Test.

Bird has himself only recently returned to first-class cricket having been diagnosed with a bulging disc in his neck during a stint with English county Hampshire earlier this year.

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Bird has been in supreme form this summer // Getty Images

And Coulter-Nile, cursed by a series of hamstring tears over recent years, has not played a Sheffield Shield this summer although his absence from the recently completed match against Victoria in Perth was due to suspension rather than injury.

"He's a fantastic bowler," Starc said today of Coulter-Nile who has also been mentioned in recent discussions by Australia’s fast bowling coach Craig McDermott and his WA coach Justin Langer as a chance to make his Test debut.

"He was actually around the group in Perth doing a bit of bowling through that Test match (at training during the second Test against New Zealand earlier this month.

"He's played enough cricket now to know his game really well, and if he does get the chance I'm sure he'll do a great job."

As the national selectors peruse the fast bowling returns at Sheffield Shield level for the past two years they will note that the leading wicket-takers available for promotion have been Tasmania’s Andrew Fekete (49 wickets), NSW’s Doug Bollinger and Bird (36) and SA’s Joe Mennie (33 at time of writing).

But Fekete, who was selected for the scheduled Test tour of Bangladesh last October that was postponed due to security concerns, conceded 151 runs from his 28 overs in SA’s run-fest at Blundstone Arena last week having been dropped from the Tasmania line-up earlier this summer.

In the current Shield season, the leading wicket-takers among the candidates to replace Starc are Bird (18 at 24.77), Mennie (17 at 20.29 midway through the final day of SA’s match against Tasmania), Victoria’s Scott Boland (12 at 12.58) and Bollinger (12 at 17.00).

However at 34 years of age and not having played a Test since the disastrous 2010-11 Ashes series in Australia, a recall for Bollinger seems far-flung chance even if the loss of the two Mitchells means the left-arm pace threat that was trumpeted at summer’s start no longer exists, other than in memories.

Likely Test squad – Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Joe Burns, Adam Voges, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Peter Nevill, Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon, James Pattinson, Jackson Bird.