Australia will take on the West Indies and South Africa over the next month in a one-day tri-series in the Caribbean but the dialogue away from the centre wicket could be just as interesting, with November's pink-ball Adelaide Test sure to be on the agenda when Steve Smith's men run into the Proteas.
Most of the Australians are spending the next few days in New York before travelling further to Guyana, where the tournament will begin next week. In Guyana, Australia will play the South Africans three times over 12 days – and a fourth time if both teams make the final in Barbados.
Discussions about November's third Test in Adelaide, which Cricket Australia wants to be the first of two day-night matches for the summer, are likely to be held whether it's at the hotel bar or the change rooms. South Africa captain AB de Villiers has made little secret of his players' opposition to playing the potential series decider under such conditions, and with some of the Australians also against the staging of two pink-ball Tests in the one season there appears still some way to go before CA can confirm the start times for Adelaide.
Mitchell Starc, returning to the squad in the tri-series after a six-month lay-off following ankle surgery, was a vocal sceptic of the concept before last year's inaugural day-night Test against New Zealand. At the time he questioned the durability and visibility of the ball but the tall left-armer has come around somewhat. After more than 140,000 people attended at Adelaide Oval in three days, he said he couldn't argue with the commercial value but believed there was still progress to be made.
"I've heard a lot about the chats about the Gabba [Test against Pakistan in December] and that sort of thing, and I think obviously the Adelaide Test match was a great spectacle and is probably where it is best suited," he said. "If they take a little bit of grass off, it will probably last a few more than three days.
"The ball obviously needs a little bit of work but I think it's in a good place and as we saw with the amount of people that came along and the viewers at home, it's obviously here to stay. I think as cricketers we're going to have to get used to it and it sounds like we're hopefully going to play two Test matches with it this year, so it's another challenge for us to get used to that for the Gabba Test.
"Obviously that Adelaide Test is still up in the air and we'll see what they've got to say about it."
The irony for someone like Starc is that the extra grass produced in Adelaide in a bid to stop the ball going soft played into the bowlers' hand, but that is not the scenario he wants to see again.
"The reason we play Test cricket is for the challenge," he said. "If you're going to keep throwing grass on the wicket just to look after a cricket ball, then I don't think that's true Test cricket.
"I think the ball has come a long way, and I think Kookaburra are doing great things with it, but I think it's got to come a little bit further so we're not preparing wickets to protect the ball."
As for his comeback from injury, Starc says his ankle clean-out surgery isn't a permanent fix but he hopes he can get a long run of fitness before he is troubled again.
"I'm sure [the ankle] spurs will come back again," he said. "It's part of fast bowling; the impact that we put through our body and especially that front foot.
"Taking that bit of bone out of the back [of the ankle] is going to solve that issue and it's felt really good in the last few months I've been bowling. Hopefully I can get some good game time under my belt now."
