Erratic scheduling is making Australia’s preparations for the ICC World Twenty20 tournament tougher, skipper George Bailey has conceded.
The low-ranking Australians will squeeze three T20 matches in against England as many star players head to South Africa for next month’s blockbuster Test series.
Three matches will follow the Test series against the Proteas before Australia head to Bangladesh for the world championship.
Bailey said the lack of continuity was the biggest challenge for all countries.
“You come together at the end of a summer or you tend to be between Tests and one-dayers and it’s over in four or five days and quite often there’s big turnover,” he told reporters at Bellerive.
“It’s sometimes tough to remember who played in the last Twenty20 let alone what sort of role they played.”
Australia sit eighth on the ICC’s T20 rankings, one ahead of minnows Ireland and two behind England.
The home side take a host of unfamiliar faces into the series, beginning in Hobart on Wednesday, with Chris Lynn and James Muirhead uncapped.
But Bailey said the planning for the World Twenty20 would begin with the home series, which also includes matches in Melbourne on Friday and Sydney on Sunday.
“There’s probably a handful of guys who’ll go on to South Africa and then into the World Cup,” he said.
“We’ll start to nut out a few of those roles and obviously from South Africa onwards you try and have your best 12 or 13 there.”
Returning Test paceman Mitchell Starc will be nursed back into international cricket through the series, Bailey said.
“I think the plan at this stage is for him to play the last couple or the last game of this series,” he said.
“I thought he was our best bowler at that last World Cup.
“He swings the ball up front, he can take early wickets which just gives you a lot of momentum going into their innings.
“Then he’s really good at the death … to be able to nail a yorker and bowl some pretty good reverse swing.”
Allrounder James Faulkner is out of the series, and the tour to South Africa, after he required arthroscopic surgery on his injured knee.
The Tasmanian has been replaced in the T20 squad by South Australian Kane Richardson.
Australia and England are 4-4 head-to-head from nine T20 matches.
Australia squad: George Bailey (capt), Aaron Finch, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ben Cutting, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, James Muirhead, Kane Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Matt Wade, Cameron White.
England squad: Stuart Broad (capt), Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Michael Lumb, Eoin Morgan, Boyd Rankin, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Tredwell, Luke Wright.