Critical Shield round to frame Test side

The make-up of Australia's batting line-up for the first Domain Test against India will be decided at the Gabba this week in a pivotal JLT Sheffield Shield match starting on Tuesday.

Victorian teammates Marcus Harris and Peter Handscomb will take on Queensland in Brisbane, with the pair seemingly battling each other for just one vacancy in Australia's top six.

Coach Justin Langer last week said left-hander Travis Head, who will captain South Australia in their match against Tasmania in Hobart, will "definitely" play what will be his first Test on home soil.

It likely means just one of uncapped opener Harris and 13-Test batsman Handscomb will get the nod to join Head, Shaun and Mitchell Marsh, Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch in the XI for the first Test in Adelaide.

"We just have to work out whether we have another right-hander in the middle order or Marcus Harris open," Langer said in previewing the pivotal fifth round of the Shield competition.

"That's what it will come down to."

The battle between Harris and Handscomb will be one of several intriguing sub-plots at the Gabba, where Khawaja and Finch will play for the first time this Shield season.

Finch, controversially, appears set to bat at No.3 for the Vics – sandwiched between Harris and Handscomb in the batting order – even though he's been pencilled in to open against India.

Finch's opening partner for the first Test will be either Harris or Khawaja, who will play his first Shield game since undergoing knee surgery last month. A debut for Harris in Adelaide as an opener alongside Finch would see Khawaja drop down to the No.3 spot for the first Test, but Khawaja would likely open if Harris is left out and Handscomb is picked in the middle order.

"Having (opened the batting) for such a long time in the shorter forms, I don't think it makes too much of a difference," Finch told SEN of Victoria's decision to retain their opening partnership of Harris and Travis Dean for the Shield clash.

"I haven't batted with Marcus Harris a huge amount of times so that'd be nice ... (but) time in the middle is going to be the most important thing leading into that first Test."

Khawaja returns to a Bulls batting line-up that also includes Matthew Renshaw, Marnus Labuschagne and Joe Burns, a trio of Queensland batsmen who have played Test cricket this year but were overlooked when the Test squad was announced last week.

Victorian quicks Peter Siddle and Chris Tremain will also be looking for good performances before they join the Test squad in Adelaide, while Vics allrounder Glenn Maxwell and Bulls quick Michael Neser both have points to prove having also dropped from Test calculations this year.

In Hobart, Head will be joined by Australian white-ball players Alex Carey and Adam Zampa for SA's game against Tasmania, who will be captained by Matthew Wade following George Bailey's decision last week to stand down.

"(It) came a lot from George," Wade said of Bailey's decision to hand over the captaincy and play as a batsman only.

"He wanted to just free himself up and concentrate on just making runs and he felt the best way to do that was to hand the captaincy back."

Wade, who was an outside chance of a Test return following a strong start to the Shield season, will again spend time in the outfield given Test skipper Tim Paine will take the gloves for the Tigers before heading to Adelaide.

Zampa has been picked by the Redbacks ahead of young leggie Lloyd Pope, who has been dropped having taken 0-270 at Shield level since his stunning seven-wicket haul last month that made headlines around the country.

Swing bowlers Jackson Bird, Daniel Worrall and Joe Mennie will also feature in what's expected to be another clash at Blundstone Arena that offers plenty of assistance to the fast bowlers.

The third match of Round Five will see Test squad members Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh and Nathan Lyon all play in Western Australia's game against NSW at Perth Stadium.

The Marsh brothers will be joined in the WA side by T20 duo Marcus Stoinis and Ashton Agar for the first ever first-class game at the new venue, which will host the second Domain Test from December 14.

Lyon will lead a Blues attack that will be missing Test quicks Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, who have all been rested ahead of the first Test.

Starc, fresh off a rare T20 international appearance in Sunday's third T20 against India, will join Cummins and Hazlewood in the SCG nets this week where the trio are expected to test out Steve Smith and David Warner, while India will play their only tour game at the same venue.

All matches from the JLT Sheffield Shield can be live streamed for free on cricket.com.au and the CA Live app, where you can also watch India's tour match against the CA XI at the SCG, which starts on Wednesday

JLT Sheffield Shield, Round Five, Nov 27-30

Victoria v Queensland at the Gabba

Vic: Scott Boland, Travis Dean, Andrew Fekete, Aaron Finch, Seb Gotch, Peter Handscomb (c), Marcus Harris, Jon Holland, Glenn Maxwell, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Matt Short, Chris Tremain

Qld: Usman Khawaja (c), Joe Burns, Luke Feldman, Sam Heazlett, Charlie Hemphrey, Marnus Labuschagne, James Peirson, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Mark Steketee, Mitch Swepson, Jack Wildermuth

Tasmania v South Australia at Blundstone Arena

Tas: Matthew Wade (c), George Bailey, Gabe Bell, Jackson Bird, Alex Doolan, Jake Doran, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Simon Milenko, Tim Paine, Alex Pyecroft, Jordan Silk

SA: Travis Head (c), Alex Carey, Tom Cooper, Callum Ferguson, Jake Lehmann, Conor McInerney, Joe Mennie, Kane Richardson, Jake Weatherald, Nick Winter, Daniel Worrall, Adam Zampa

Western Australia v New South Wales Blues at Perth Stadium

WA: Mitchell Marsh (c), Ashton Turner, Ashton Agar, William Bosisto, Hilton Cartwright, Cameron Green, Liam Guthrie, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kelly, Shaun Marsh, David Moody, Jhye Richardson, Marcus Stoinis

NSW: Peter Nevill (c), Sean Abbott, Harry Conway, Trent Copeland, Jack Edwards, Moises Henriques, Daniel Hughes, Nick Larkin, Nathan Lyon, Stephen O'Keefe, Kurtis Patterson, Jason Sangha, Greg West

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: First Test, Adelaide Oval

Dec 14-18: Second Test, Perth Stadium

Dec 26-30: Third Test, MCG

Jan 3-7: Fourth Test, SCG

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

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, 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