Selectors turn attention to Sri Lanka

Australia's selectors are set to waste little time naming the squad for the two-match Domain Test series against Sri Lanka, which is set to be revealed on Wednesday. 

After losing the Border-Gavaskar Series to India 2-1 for the first time ever on home soil, Australia host Sri Lanka in Brisbane in a day-night Test from January 24 before travelling to Canberra for its maiden Test starting February 1.

The selection panel is set to convene in the next 48 hours to pick the squad with the input of captain Tim Paine, who was asked after the play on Monday if he would like to be a selector moving forward.

"Not really, no," Paine said. "I’ve got enough on my plate at the moment.

"I’m happy when I’m asked my opinion and will give it. Happy with that. 

"As for down the track, wouldn’t mind a crack at it in four or five years. That would be nice."

With a short turn around and no first-class cricket to go off, it is hard to imagine too many changes to the squad that faced India over four Tests. 

The biggest question marks around the Australian setup moving forward, as suggested by Test great Ricky Ponting on Saturday, involve the batting, particularly the future of No.5 Shaun Marsh.

In his last 16 Test innings, Marsh has produced 10 single-figure scores with only one half-century – the 60 he scored in the second innings in Adelaide against India. 

While Marsh and fellow senior batsman Usman Khawaja found the going tough against an all-star India bowling attack, Paine said the entire batting group was equally at fault this summer.

"I think everyone in our top seven didn’t play as well as we would have liked," Paine said. 

"I thought Marcus Harris and Travis Head, Travis was our (second) leading run-scorer and Marcus showed in most innings that he could make it at this level, we’ve got some positives there. 

"The rest of us didn’t score enough runs, so to put that on 'Uzzie' (Khawaja) and Shaun is probably a little bit harsh. 

"Both of those players we know are absolute class, we know they can score a lot of runs. 

"We have faith in them going forward."

The Cricket Australia XI squad to face Sri Lanka in a three-day tour match is also set to be named Wednesday.

That match runs from January 17-19 at Blundstone Arena in Hobart, concluding on the same day the Test squad is set to assemble in Brisbane ahead of the first Test.

The CA XI team is set to be comprised of long-form players from the eight KFC BBL clubs. 

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: India won by 31 runs

Dec 14-18: Australia won by 146 runs

Dec 26-30: India won by 137 runs

Jan 3-7: Match Drawn

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar